It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.
—Thomas Sowell (b.1930) American Conservative Economist, Political Commentator
The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.
—Ben Stein (b.1944) American Writer, Actor, Commentator
So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don’t sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we’ve satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
Do not wait for ideal circumstances, nor the best opportunities; they will never come.
—Janet Erskine Stuart (1857–1914) English Catholic Nun, Educationalist
A man without decision can never be said to belong to himself.
—John W. Foster
Choice of attention – to pay attention to this and ignore that – is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
Indecision is the seedling of fear.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
Statistics are no substitute for judgment.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going.
—David Starr Jordan (1851–1931) American Educator, Ichthyologist
Some people, however long their experience or strong their intellect, are temperamentally incapable of reaching firm decisions.
—James Callaghan (1912–2005) British Labour Statesman, Prime Minister
The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them, and then make our plans with confidence.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide … And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
People “died” all the time … Parts of them died when they made the wrong kinds of decisions—decisions against life. Sometimes they died bit by bit until finally they were just living corpses walking around. If you were perceptive you could see it in their eyes; the fire had gone out … you always knew when you made a decision against life … The door clicked and you were safe inside safe and dead.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
—Sun Tzu (fl.c.544–496 BCE) Chinese General, Military Theorist
Impelled by a state of mind which is destined not to last, we make our irrevocable decisions
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
Reconsider, v. To seek a justification for a decision already made.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please—you can never have both.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Common sense does not ask an impossible chessboard, but takes the one before it and plays the game.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) German Lutheran Pastor, Theologian
Decisiveness is often the art of timely cruelty.
—Henri Becquerel (1852–1908) French Physicist, Nobel Laureate
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
We don’t have enough time to premeditate all our actions.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
A true history of human events would show that a far larger proportion of our acts are the results of sudden impulses and accident than of that reason of which we so much boast.
—Peter Cooper
There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life’s point of no return.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
Don’t stand shivering upon the bank; plunge in at once, and have it over.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Jurist
Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
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