Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
How dangerous can false reasoning prove.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
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
The person who in shaky times also wavers only increases the evil, but the person of firm decision fashions the universe.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Indecision is the seedling of fear.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
It is only in our decisions that we are important.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
When We’re Down To Two Choices … You cannot have it both ways.
—Unknown
It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable, in retrospect.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
What are the convulsions of a city in comparison with the insurrections of the soul? Man is a depth still greater than the people. Jean Valjean at that very moment was the prey of a terrible upheaval. Every sort of gulf had opened again within him. He also was trembling, like Paris, on the brink of an obscure and formidable revolution. A few hours had sufficed to bring this about. His destiny and his conscience had suddenly been covered with gloom. Of him also, as well as of Paris, it might have been said: Two principles are face to face. The white angel and the black angel are about to seize each other on the bridge of the abyss. Which of the two will hurl the other over? Who will carry the day?
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away.
—Samuel Butler
Life is the sum of all your choices.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
In addition to self-awareness, imagination and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment-independent will-that really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to proactively carry out the program we have developed through the other three endowments. Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help 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
Many persons of high intelligence have notoriously poor judgement.
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
Logic pervades the world; the limits of the world are also the limits of logic.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
When a man takes the road to destruction, the gods help him along.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
No man who has not sat in the assemblies of men can know the light, odd and uncertain ways in which decisions are often arrived at.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) English Dramatist, Essayist
To do nothing is also a good remedy.
—Hippocrates (460–370 BCE) Ancient Greek Physician
An ideal wife is any woman who has an ideal husband.
—Booth Tarkington (1869–1946) American Novelist, Dramatist
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
—Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American Sportsperson
All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
You need an infinite stretch of time ahead of you to start to think, infinite energy to make the smallest decision. The world is getting denser. The immense number of useless projects is bewildering. Too many things have to be put in to balance up an uncertain scale. You can’t disappear anymore. You die in a state of total indecision.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing.
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American Poet
You must know that in any moment a decision you make can change the course of your life forever: the very next person stand behind in line or sit next to on an airplane, the very next phone call you make or receive, the very next movie you see or book you read or page you turn could be the one single thing that causes the floodgates to open, and all of the things that you’ve been waiting for to fall into place.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
The lives of the best of us are spent in choosing between evils.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
Choices are the hinges of destiny.
—Edwin Markham (1852–1940) American Poet, Educator
It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher