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Topics/Leadership

Quotes about decisions

36 quotes from 34 people

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Look before you leap.
Aesop620–564 BCAesop’s Fables (6th century BC), The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion – The Cat and the CockIn context
- Advice
I felt like a moth in a chandelier — all at once there were lots of pretty choices, but I wasn’t quite sure where to fly.
Richard Bachborn 1936The Bridge Across Forever (1984)
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
The Bible (King James Version)Proverbs 16:9 (KJV)In context
- God
Decide, v.i. To succumb to the preponderance of one set of influences over another set.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
- Comedy
There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: Does this path have a heart?
CCCarlos Castaneda1925–1998The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998), “Quotations from The Teachings of Don Juan” (Chapter 4)
Every great decision creates ripples⁠—like a huge boulder dropped in a lake. The ripples merge, rebound off the banks in unforseeable ways. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences.
Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881
As actors it is easy for us to play the hero. We get to fight the bad guys and stand up for justice. In real life, the choices are not always so clear.
Kirk Douglas1916–2020“Kirk Douglas On Trumbo: ‘I Was Threatened That Using A Blacklisted Writer Would End My Career’” by Pete Hammond, Deadline (19 November 2015)
- Acting
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
T. S. Eliot1888–1965The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), Line 79In context
- Courage
He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end.
Harry Emerson Fosdick1878–1969Living Under Tension (1941), p. 111
I believe that none can “save” his fellow man by making a choice for him. To help him, he can indicate the possible alternatives, with sincerity and love, without being sentimental and without illusion.
Erich Fromm1900–1980Credo (1965)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Robert Frost1874–1963The Road Not Taken (1915)In context
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 Hammarskjöld1905–1961Vägmärken · Markings (1963), 1951
Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.
John Irvingborn 1942Until I Find You (2005), ch. 25, p. 493
Besides, I try to judge things for myself; to judge wrong, I think, is more honourable than not to judge at all.
Henry James1843–1916The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Ch. XVI
- Honor
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
Steve Jobs1955–2011Address at Stanford University (2005)
- Life & Death