Selected decision quotes

1. Reason well from the beginning and then there will never be any need to look back with confusion and doubt.

2. Acts which are essentially dishonourable must not be done; they would be justified only by calm contemplation of their correctness in abstract cases.

3. We must as second best, as people say, take the least of the evils.

4. Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might-have-been.

5. Take Courage! Whatever you decide to do, it will probably be the wrong thing.

6. The time for action is past! Now is the time for senseless bickering!

7. Sometimes the only way you can win is to stay out of the game.

8. Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

9. When love grows diseased, the best thing we can do is to put it to a violent death. I cannot endure the torture of a lingering and consumptive passion.

10. The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself.

11. A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he's not a man of action. It is as if a tennis player before returning a ball stopped to think about his views of the physical and mental advantages of tennis. You must act as you breathe.

12. The keen spirit Seizes the prompt occasion, makes the thought Start into instant action, and at once Plans and performs, resolves and executes!

13. Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

14. Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.

15. If a man consults whether he is to fight, when he has the power in his own hands, it is certain that his opinion is against fighting.

16. Desperate affairs require desperate measures.

17. Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse had signed a lease on a five-room apartment in a geometric white house on First Avenue when they received word, from a woman named Mrs. Cortez, that a four-room apartment in the Bramford had become available.

18. I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.

19. The tide tarrieth no man.

20. Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.

21. I'm all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius.

22. A price is something you get. A cost is something you lose.

23. Life in the twentieth century is like a parachute jump: you have to get it right the first time.

24. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

25. The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.

26. Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.

27. What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.

28. Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.

29. A difference which makes no difference is no difference at all.

30. I'd decided to take the risk, and either I'd succeed or else.

31. It is all very well to be cautious, but if we are too cautious we will miss our opportunity.

32. You know, doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right.

33. He nothing common did or mean Upon that memorable scene, But with his keener eye The axe's edge did try.

34. A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided.

35. One does simply what one can in order to apply what one knows.

36. He who considers too much will perform little.

37. 'There is only one side to the stock market; and it is not the bull side or the bear side, but the right side'

38. Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, 'that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.'

39. Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.

40. To Perl, or not to Perl, that is the kvetching.

41. My friend asked me if I wanted a frozen banana, I said 'no, but I want a regular banana later, so ... yeah'.

42. If I wanted to doubt then I could doubt endlessly. But at some point a person has to stop questioning and act, and at that point you have to trust something to be true. You have to act as if something is true, and so you choose the thing you have the most reason to believe in, you have to live in the world that you have the most hope in.

43. If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: 'It's gonna go wrong.' Or 'She's going to hurt me.' Or,'I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . .' Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.

44. What all agree upon is probably right; what no two agree in most probably is wrong.

45. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.

46. Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do.

47. I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.

48. I'm quite a compulsive person - I only worked this out recently - I'm compulsive, but I'm also very indecisive. I don't know what I want, but I know that I want it now.

49. You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10 or 12 to 1.

50. 'He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end.'

51. At the approach of danger there are always two voices that speak with equal force in the heart of man: one very reasonably tells the man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of avoiding it; the other even more reasonable says that it is too painful and harassing to think of the danger, since it is not a man's power to provide for everything and escape from the general march of events; and that it is therefore better to turn aside from the painful subject till it has come, and to think of what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally yields to the first voice; in society to the second.

52. If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

53. I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself, 'All right, then, I'll GO to hell.'

54. Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-canceling business; and it gives in the long run a net result of zero.

55. There comes a time in the affairs of man when he has to take the bull by the tail and face the situation.

56. Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent, or arrogant Commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations - all take their seats at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of war. Always remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.

57. So they 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.

58. When you get to a fork in the road, take it.

59. 'We all have a tendency to use research as a drunkard uses a lamppost -- for support, but not for illumination.'

60. The one self-knowledge worth having is to know one's own mind.

61. Make peace, you fools!

62. Devine, si tu peux, et choisis, si tu l'oses.

63. Since it could be done what was the use of doing it, and anyway you always have to stop doing something sometime. ~ Ch. 4

64. Know, think, choose, do.

65. Because the Rock has spoken.

66. I have many times resigned myself to never finding a true way out. But a new hope always emerges telling me that it is not yet too late for all of us to take stock and make a decision. I was brought up to believe in free will.

67. It is better to debate a question without deciding it than to decide it without debate.

68. My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. 'Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!' (see Philippians 1:21 ). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God's will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God's gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide- for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably

69. 'I must consider,' said Monica with a smile, 'but one can't do these things offhand--that is worse than doing nothing. I'll tell you what to do NOW. Why not go and stay with Aunt Anne? She would like to see you, I know, and I have always thought it rather lazy of you not to go there--she is rather a remarkable woman, and it's a pretty country. Have you ever been there?'

70. In the Bible we find the text, 'That which is neither hot nor cold will I spew out of my mouth.' This utterance of the great Nazarene has kept its profound validity until the present day.

71. It's in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.

72. We were considering him (Ruud van Nistelrooy) and Francis Jeffers and, in the end, we went for Jeffers.

73. Summoning the Duke of Richmond, who was to have command of the reserve when formed, he asked for a map. The two withdrew to an adjoining room. Wellington closed the door, and said, with an oath, 'Napoleon has humbugged me.' He then explained that he had ordered his army to concentrate at Quatre Bras, adding, 'But we shall not stop him there; and if so, I must fight him here,' marking Waterloo with his thumb-nail on the map as he spoke. It was not until the next morning that he left for the front.

74. Drivers exist in a world where decisions made in fractions of seconds could mean the difference between life and death; you do not allow yourself to be held ransom by emotions, especially fear.

75. Instinct: 'Learn to have confidence in yourself and attempt to rely on your instincts. Instincts are often the last remnants of a once good judgment that has been dispirited by fear; the tireless master that regularly bridles true individual possibility.'

76. Calvin : What am I supposed to do?

77. Gad, sir, Churchill is right. The Govt. has evidently made an irrevocable decision to be guided by circumstances with a firm hand.

78. I never felt it was inevitable that we had to go to war.

79. The Rock'll tell you what. Of all people you throw out of the building, of all people, live TV, you throw out the Rock? No wonder WCW went out of business! (To Eric Bischoff, calling out Bischoff's judgment call of throwing the Rock out of the arena in Rock's hometown, Miami, and parallels it to Bischoff's judgment calls resulting in the downfall of WCW)

80. No girl, however coolly her blood may flow, can be pressed to a man's breast, wildly throbbing with love for her, and not experience some agitation in consequence. Whatever may be the state of her sentiments, there is a magnetism in such a contact which she cannot at once throw off. That kiss had brought her relations with Henry to a crisis. It had precipitated the necessity of some decision. She could no longer hold him off, and play with him. By that bold dash he had gained a vantage-ground, a certain masterful attitude which he had never held before. Yet, after all, I am not sure that she was not just a little afraid of him, and, moreover, that she did not like him all the better for it.

81. That's the last potato I will ever dig.

82. I confess that I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much indetermined and unpredictable, to a pretence of exact knowledge that is likely to be false. The credit which the apparent conformity with recognized scientific standards can gain for seemingly simple but false theories may, as the present instance shows, have grave consequences.

83. My head lies at least a foot closer to my heart than is the case with other men: that is why I am so reasonable.

84. Never undertake anything for which you wouldn't have the courage to ask the blessing of heaven.

85. Come: there shall be such islanding from grief, And small communion with the master shore. Twang they. And I incline this ear to tin, Consult a dual dilemma. Whether to dry In humming pallor or to leap and die.

86. I have never had much faith in our embattled child President's decision-making powers... I know that is not what you want to hear/read at this time, especially if you happen to be serving in the doomsday mess that is currently the U.S. Army.

87. It is your task, of course, to put the best interpretation on the facts. Sometimes they will bear it. What do you propose?

88. Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but at the ballot-boxes of the Republic, in the quiet of November, after the silence of deliberate judgment, will this question be settled. And now, gentlemen of the Convention, what do we want?

89. I cannot sit and let Something happen I'll regret. Ooh, he scares me! There's a man behind those eyes. I catch him when I'm bending.

90. I'm serious about thinking through all the possibilities before we settle on anything. All things have the advantages of their disadvantages, and vice versa.

91. Sometimes we choose the generalization. Sometimes we don't.

92. Risk means guessing at the outcome, but never second-guessing.

93. I don't care what the editor likes or dislikes, I care what the people like.

94. I was walking down the street the other day when this guy asked if I wanted a frozen banana...I said 'no' but then thought I might want a regular banana later, so...yeah.

95. If Doug Jones upset me, I will retire.

96. When I went there, I did not think to have done this. But perceiving the spirit of God so strong upon me, I would not consult flesh and blood.

97. When he quitted the Parliament, his chief dependence was on the Army, which he endeavoured by all means to keep in unity, and if he could not bring it to his sense, he, rather than suffer any division in it, went over himself and carried his friends with him into that way which the army did choose, and that faster than any other person in it.

98. But could he blame her for being glad that she didn't have to choose? Glad that she could have both?

99. 'I'll tell you what let's do'.

100. 'Cause I'm gonna lose you. Yes, I'm gonna lose you. If I'm gonna lose you. I'll lose you now for good. ~ 'Lose You'