An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
—Edward de Bono (1933–2021) Maltese-British Psychologist, Writer
Your decision to be, have and do something out of ordinary entails facing difficulties that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
They made the fatal decision: they’d chosen always the clear, safe course that leads ever downward into stagnation.
—Frank Herbert (1920–86) American Science Fiction Writer
There are times when a battle decides everything, and there are times when the most insignificant thing can decide the outcome of a battle
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Don’t you ever wonder maybe if you took a left turn instead of a right you could be someone different?
—Unknown
A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.
—Chinese Proverb
In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
It is not always what we know or analyzed before we make a decision that makes it a great decision. It is what we do after we make the decision to implement and execute it that makes it a good decision.
—C. William Pollard (b.1938) American Businessman
Make a decision that from now on, your thoughts do not run you, you run your thoughts. From now on, your mind is not the captain of your ship, you are the captain of the ship, and your mind works for you.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else’s lie, not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life and what you become yourself.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
Everything is something you decide to do, and there is nothing you have to do.
—Denis Waitley (b.1933) American Motivational Speaker, Author
The more decisions that you are forced to make alone, the more you are aware of your freedom to choose.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
The inability to make a decision has often been passed off as patience.
—Unknown
When, against one’s will, one is high pressured into making a hurried decision, the best answer is always No, because No is more easily changed to Yes, than Yes is changed to No.
—Charles Erwin Wilson (1890–1961) American Businessperson
Reconsider, v. To seek a justification for a decision already made.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be….
—Isaac Asimov (1920–92) Russian-born American Writer, Scientist
Pour the bulk of your time into action, not deciding. The state of indecision is a major time waster. Don’t spend more than 60 seconds in that state if you can avoid it. Make a firm, immediate decision, and move from uncertainty to certainty to action. Let the world tell you when you’re wrong, and you’ll soon build enough experience to make accurate, intelligent decisions.
—Steve Pavlina (b.1971) American Motivational Speaker
Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
It is a poor and disgraceful thing not to be able to reply, with some degree of certainty, to the simple questions, “What will you be?. What will you do?.”
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
When one bases his life on principle, 99 percent of his decisions are already made.
—Unknown
Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965) American Lutheran Theologian, Philosopher
Nothing can be more destructive to vigor of action than protracted, anxious fluctuation, through resolutions adopted, rejected, resumed, and suspended, and nothing causes a greater expense of feeling. A man without decision can never be said to belong to himself; he is as a wave of the sea, or a feather in the air which every breeze blows about as it listeth.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
Frozen in fear, you avoid responsibility because you think your experience is beyond your control. This stance keeps you from making decisions, solving problems, or going after what you want in life.
—David Emerald
A decision made from fear is always the wrong decision.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
You can actually shift your thinking in such a way as to make a wrong decision or mistake an impossibility.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!”
—William Hutchinson Murray (1913–96) Scottish Mountaineer