The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

The wise use of your freedom to make your own decisions is crucial to your spiritual growth, now and for eternity.

My one big regret is that I didn’t play on for ten more years.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

If you’re going to do something tonight that you’ll be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late.

There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.

I don’t have any regrets. I made all my own decisions.

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.

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.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.

There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.

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

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

The ruling passion, be it what it will. The ruling passion conquers reason still.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

At one point he decided enough was enough.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

In matters of truth the fact that you don’t want to publish something is, nine times out of ten, a proof that you ought to publish it.

Truly fertile Music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a Music conducive to Dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason.

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

The authority you establish must emerge naturally from your character, from the particular strengths you possess.

Force does not constitute right… obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.

I am never proud to participate in violence, yet I know that each of us must care enough for ourselves that we can be ready and able to come to our own defense when and wherever needed.

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

Choose your life’s mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 percent of all your happiness or misery.

My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that’s the law.

I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men.

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.

You can’t have a value structure without a hierarchy. They’re the same thing because a value structure means one thing takes precedence over another.

We will burn that bridge when we come to it.

The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.

The word ‚belief‘ is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it – I don’t need to believe it.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

I only change things where I know about a situation. I’d never change just for change.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.

I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

I have never changed my message. I preach the Bible, and I preach it with authority.

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.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

One aspect of appellate judging is we have to give reasons for all of our decisions. And when you sit down and try to write it out, sometimes you find that your first judgment wasn’t the right one.