It is sometimes said that thoughts develop into actions. I disagree with this statement. A person must always have thoughts and ideas before doing anything, however, without deciding to act upon the thoughts they remain merely, thoughts. John Ruskin sums it up well in this quote: “What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do. ” What Ruskin means by this is people can think or believe whatever they want and it won’t amount to anything unless they make the decision to act upon it.
And if they do not act upon their thoughts then they are irrelevant and amount to nothing. I strongly agree with Ruskin in this idea. This is because I have seen way too many people conjure up incredible ideas and plans, but never act upon them, causing the amazing idea to go waste. On the contrary, I have seen rash, extreme beliefs actually acted upon and the horrific aftermath that was left in the wake. To start, in Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, Orwell elaborates on the time period of his life when he was an officer in India.
He would be insulted and disrespected by the natives. Orwell noted, “I was hated by large numbers of people”(Orwell). This was simply because he was a European and was looked upon as the oppressor, when in actuality, Orwell was against everything he was doing and was entirely on the side of the Burmese. Orwell stated that “imperialism was an evil thing” and “I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British”(Orwell). This is a perfect example of what Ruskin was talking about when he said, “The only consequence is what we do”(Ruskin).
Orwell had all of these different thoughts and ideas about how he was with the Burmese in their fight and was completely against the British, but he never acted upon any of them. This lack of action resulted in him having to stray from his personal values and slaughter an elephant, “solely to avoid looking a fool”(Orwell). To continue, if Orwell would have made the decision to act against the Imperialism, he would not have been in the next uncomfortable spot he found himself in. There was an elephant ravaging Burma, and he was called in to handle the situation.
Orwell’s initial thoughts were to not kill the elephant. He wrote, “I had no intention of shooting the elephant – Thad merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary”(Orwell). According to Ruskin this is irrelevant. When Ruskin says, “[w]hat we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence”(Ruskin) it means that Orwell saying that he went in with the intention to not kill the elephant, does not matter because the thought was not acted upon.
Orwell was then pressured by the Burmese people to kill the elephant when they crowded around him and he eventually succumbed to the pressure he was under: “It was always unnerving having a crowd following you”(Orwell). At the last moment the thoughts Orwell had had going into the situation dissolved entirely, and he realized “that I should have to shoot the elephant after all”(Orwell).
Orwell did end up killing the elephant and Ruskin’s quote is absolutely right because when Ruskin says, “The only consequence is what we do”(Ruskin) he is saying that it did not matter what Orwell wanted to do or thought he was going to do, what he ended up doing is what made the impact and matters the most. In addition, in Dr. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, is another good example of thoughts without action. Swift has all of these ideas that can “[relieve] the poor” and “[give] some pleasure to the rich”(Swift). He never actually does anything with these though.
He simply puts them out there but does not make any attempt to turn them into law. Swift claims, “I have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work”(Swift). This is saying that Swift could care less about the law happening for himself, he is more worried about “the publick good of [his] country”(Swift). But if no one from his country is willing to put this into effect then what would become of his proposition? With no one taking action on this set of ideals, it simply slips away into nothingness.
This, again, is a perfect example of what Ruskin meant when he said, “The only consequence is what we do”(Ruskin). However heinous the thought may be, if it stays a thought and only a thought, it is of no importance. In the end, I strongly agree with John Ruskin’s quote that reads “What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do”. This is because I believe that no matter what you think about or what you propose, it is all worthless if it is not acted upon.