I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.

What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

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.

No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.

I think that there is never an indispensable leader, you know? I think that there is a time with dignity that one needs to leave.

If we could just find out who’s in charge, we could kill him.

You can’t learn in school what the world is going to do next year.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another.

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.

The thing that makes my clothes really different is that, number one, they are really great designs; they’re not tacky; they are very professional; the design is made from lots of decisions.

When I’m in management meetings when we’re deciding my future, those decisions are left up to me. I’m the one who has to go out and fulfill all these obligations, so I should be able to choose which ones I do or not. That’s the part of my life where I feel most in control.

A good name is rather to be chosen than riches.

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

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

It’s a question of whether we’re going to go forward into the future, or past to the back.

Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.

I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.

I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don’t doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.

I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.

I’ve turned down shows offering large amounts of money.

Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn’t any good reason to refer to it.

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

The business aspect is one of the most important things about having a music career, because every choice you make in a management meeting affects your life a year-and-a-half from now.

One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.

It is always your next move.

Loving others always costs us something and requires effort. And you have to decide to do it on purpose. You can’t wait for a feeling to motivate you.

In my line of work, the enemy gets a vote.

I will carry on writing, to be sure. But I don’t know if I would want to publish again after Harry Potter.

Your emotions are very unstable and should never be the foundation for direction in your life.

I really want to love somebody. I do. I just don’t know if it’s possible forever and ever.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

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.

If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the ‚right‘ thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.

I thought ‚Heller‘ was a very bad decision.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

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

A ‚No‘ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‚Yes‘ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.

Our lifelong certainties about the world can be demolished in a single second.

When you’re in a leadership role, you can never please all of the people all of the time. There’s also a lot of responsibility that goes along with it that others may not realize.

If you aren’t in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

At one point he decided enough was enough.

It’s hard to speculate what tomorrow may bring.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn’t smooth. You’ll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don’t believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don’t give up.

I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision to make because I missed my children so very much.

I don’t know what’s better gettin‘ laid or gettin‘ paid.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.