When in doubt, don’t.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

I’m very careful about saying who would and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know.

People want to go out and travel around and meet cool people. I could just go live in Vermont, but is that what I really want?

Some people feel affronted when something they thought to be true doesn’t happen. If that’s the case, then your sense of risk is much higher, and that leads to risk aversion. You need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

It is not scientifically possible to accurately predict the outcome of an action. To suggest otherwise runs contrary to historical experience and the nature of war.

I don’t have all the answers.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

Common sense is not so common.

Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.

My mom was on the United Way group that decides how to allocate the money and looks at all the different charities and makes the very hard decisions about where that pool of funds is going to go.

If you are part of a religion that very strongly insists that you believe then to decide not to do that is quite a big hurdle to jump over. You never forget the thought process you went through. It becomes part of your whole intellectual picture.

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

I’m for women choosing whatever they want to do but they have to really know what they are doing.

I’ve seen how the issues that come across a president’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

He who molds the public sentiment… makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.

I haven’t gone out of my way to seek advice from people I don’t know.

Finality is not the language of politics.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.

To some extent I happily don’t know what I’m doing. I feel that it’s an artist’s responsibility to trust that.

What matters in the Sun-tzu universe are not positions of strength and power, but situations in which you have options, full of potential force.

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.

Put your leaders in stressful scenarios. Make them figure out solutions under pressure. See if you can make them frustrated, angry, and flustered, and then demand decisive leadership from them. They will be challenged at first, but they will get better over time.

Don’t run if you can walk. Don’t walk if you can stand. Don’t stand if you can sit. Don’t sit if you can lie down.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

You are doomed to make choices. This is life’s greatest paradox.

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

It’s not worth doing something unless you were doing something that someone, somewere, would much rather you weren’t doing.

Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.

When should a college athlete turn pro? Not until he has earned all he can in college as an amateur.

I definitely connected to the fact that life gets out of control and you end up doing things and wishing you were doing other things instead.

When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.

Remember, no one decides who they’re going to vote for based on the vice president. I mean that literally.

We need an adult in the White House. When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally.

I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people – one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion’s den. You can’t just play around with all those big cats – you’ve got to take somebody on.

You should do what other people do, unless you have a very good reason not to.

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

I don’t have a magic formula for prioritizing the world’s problems.

You’ve got to work things out in the cloakroom, and when you’ve got them worked out, you can debate a little before you vote.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

I bought a company in the mid-’90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I’ve made lots of dumb decisions. That’s part of the game.

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.

I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I’m a human being, too. And I’m on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.

Though men determine, the gods doo dispose: and oft times many things fall out betweene the cup and the lip.

Eight, as you know, is not a good number for a multi-member court.

Before I lost my voice, it was slurred, so only those close to me could understand, but with the computer voice, I found I could give popular lectures. I enjoy communicating science. It is important that the public understands basic science, if they are not to leave vital decisions to others.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

I will say this: one of the things that is a pain when you’re expecting children is how much advice unsolicited people give you when you’re not asking for it.

I thank God I’m in a position where I can pick and choose – there are some roles I don’t play.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.