ProverbMorality
English origin1640
English origin1640The shortest answer is doing the thing itself
Meaning: Action is more effective than deliberation; the most direct response to a challenge is to confront it.
Origin: George Herbert's Outlandish Proverbs (1640) gives it as "The shortest answer is doing." Herbert collected foreign sayings rather than inventing them, and this one makes the same point as "actions speak louder than words": a deed settles what argument cannot.
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