In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
He who hesitates is sometimes saved.
—James Thurber
I used to be indecisive; now I’m not sure.
—Anonymous
To do nothing is also a good remedy.
—Hippocrates (460–370 BCE) Ancient Greek Physician
Perhaps, on the whole, embarrassment and perplexity are a kind of natural accompaniment to life and movement; and it is better to be driven out of your senses with thinking which of two things you ought to do than to do nothing whatever, and be utterly uninteresting to all the world.
—Margaret Oliphant (1828–97) Scottish Author
To be always intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it; this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed.
—John Tillotson
There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Don’t stand shivering upon the bank; plunge in at once, and have it over.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Jurist
Once I make up my mind, I’m full of indecision.
—Oscar Levant (1906–72) American Musician, Composer, Author, Comedian, Actor
When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
It is a miserable thing to live in suspense; it is the life of a spider.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
The wavering mind is but a base possession.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing.
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American Poet
The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away.
—Samuel Butler
An ideal wife is any woman who has an ideal husband.
—Booth Tarkington (1869–1946) American Novelist, Dramatist
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
Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardship of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
There is nothing in the world more pitiable than an irresolute man, oscillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two, and who does not perceive that nothing can unite them.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.
—Moses Maimonides (1135–1204) Jewish Philosopher, Rabbinic Scholar
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