"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

Action

Create & Download Quote Image

Customize Design

Theme Color

Insight & Reflection

This reflection on action by Raymond Chandler resonates across generations. It highlights a fundamental truth about human nature: our continuous search for meaning in action is what ultimately defines our character and our path forward.

About Raymond Chandler

Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at age 44, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime. All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once.

More quotes by Raymond Chandler →
Editorial Note: This quote is curated and fact-checked by the ShortQuote Editorial Team. Verified Literature Specialist.

More by Raymond Chandler

"She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket."

— Raymond Chandler
Read more →

"Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks and has nothing to say."

— Raymond Chandler
Read more →

"An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence."

— Raymond Chandler
Read more →

"Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency."

— Raymond Chandler
Read more →

More about Action

"I've had a tough time learning how to act like a congressman. Today I accidentally spent some of my own money."

— Joseph P. Kennedy
Read more →

"But I know God has big stuff planned that ultimately doesn't have anything to do with me."

— Michael W. Smith
Read more →

"As far as carrying the American banner, you just do what's right for the kids."

— Dennis Farina
Read more →

"I have retired, but if there's anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do."

— Nelson Mandela
Read more →
View all Action quotes →