Literary notes about Actions (AI summary)
In literature, “actions” carries a rich and multifaceted meaning that spans the physical deeds of characters to abstract moral and philosophical inquiries. Sometimes it is used to draw a parallel between virtue and vice, suggesting that even those deemed just and unjust ultimately converge in their deeds ([1]). In other texts, the term defines formal or institutional behavior, as when the conduct of a high official is seen as an extension of executive action ([2]). Philosophical discussions probe the very ethics underpinning human behavior, questioning whether an act born of passion is inherently different from one stemming from calculated thought ([3]), and arguing that consciousness itself unites our actions to form personal identity ([4]). History and narrative alike depict actions as pivotal events that determine the flow of fate—for instance, in accounts of military exploits ([5]) or the unfolding of everyday life in social commentaries ([6]). Ethical treatises even liken the measure of one’s free will and accountability to the moral value of one’s actions ([7]), highlighting how deeply the term is woven into our understanding of human destiny and responsibility ([8]).
- Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust; they would both come at last to the same point.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato - Such as require the action of the President would be laid before the Secretary of War, whose actions would be regarded as those of the President.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman - Again: how does the involuntariness make any difference between wrong actions done from deliberate calculation, and those done by reason of anger?
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle - Consciousness alone unites actions into the same Person.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - Antipater Cultivates A Friendship With Caesar, After Pompey's Death; He Also Performs Great Actions In That War, Wherein He Assisted Mithridates.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus - To which I shall answer: first, that it is very difficult to pursue a series of human actions, and keep clear from them.
— from Joseph Andrews, Vol. 1 by Henry Fielding - Morality is the Relation of Voluntary Actions to these Rules.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - Can he think their actions his own any more than the actions of any other man that ever existed?
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James
