You are the handicap you must face. You are the one who must choose your place.
—James Lane Allen (1849–1925) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
The last, if not the greatest, of the human freedoms: to choose their own attitude in any given circumstance.
—Bruno Bettelheim (1903–90) Austrian Psychoanalyst, Educational Psychologist
There comes a time when you’ve got to say, “Let’s get off our asses and go …” I have always found that if I move with 75 percent or more of the facts I usually never regret it. It’s the guys who wait to have everything perfect that drive you crazy.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
Form the habit of making decisions when your spirit is fresh … to let dark moods lead is like choosing cowards to command armies.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
Look for your choices pick the best one then go with it.
—Pat Riley (b.1945) American Basketball Player, Coach
There is nothing more to be esteemed than a manly firmness and decision of character. I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it; who sees at once what, in given circumstances, is to be done, and does it.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Most of the things we decide are not what we know to be the best. We say yes, merely because we are driven into a corner and must say something.
—Frank Hall Crane (1873–1948) American Stage and Film Actor, Director
Everything starts with yourself—with you making up your mind about what you’re going to do with your life. I tell kids that it’s a cruel world, and that the world will bend them either left or right, and it’s up to them to decide which way to bend.
—Tony Dorsett (b.1954) American Star NFL Footballer
Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Human foresight often leaves its proudest possessor only a choice of evils.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
In 40 hours I shall be in battle, with little information, and on the spur of the moment will have to make the most momentous decisions. But I believe that one’s spirit enlarges with responsibility and that, with God’s help, I shall make them, and make them right.
—George S. Patton (1885–1945) American Military Leader
They can because they think they can Virgil As a man thinketh so is he and as a man chooseth so is he.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
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
Indecision becomes decision with time.
—Unknown
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
False conclusions which have been reasoned out are infinitely worse than blind impulse.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
If you’ve made up your mind you can do something, you’re absolutely right. If you’ve made up your mind you can’t do something, you’re absolutely right.
—Unknown
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
How dangerous can false reasoning prove.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing.
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American Poet
Where there is no counsel, the people perish; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
So they, the Government, go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
—Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American Sportsperson
Decide which is the line of conduct that presents the fewest drawbacks and then follow it out as being the best one, because one never finds anything perfectly pure and unmixed, or exempt from danger.
—Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Florentine Political Philosopher
He that has a choice has trouble.
—Dutch Proverb
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
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
The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice—their choice.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
Continually one faces the horrible matter of making decisions. The solution … is, as far as possible, to avoid conscious rational decisions and choices; simply to do what you find yourself doing; to float in the great current of life with as little friction as possible; to allow things to settle themselves, as indeed they do with the most infallible certainty.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Journalist, Poet, Essayist
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