The woman that deliberates is lost.

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.

If there’s one thing that’s certain in business, it’s uncertainty.

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.

It’s so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.

The jury consist of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

Warren Buffet told me once and he said always follow your gut. When you have that gut feeling, you have to go with don’t go back on it.

I might just write a novel next. I don’t know!

I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions. This attitude of mind – this attitude of uncertainty – is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire.

A director makes 100 decisions an hour. Students ask me how you know how to make the right decision, and I say to them, ‚If you don’t know how to make the right decision, you’re not a director.‘

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‚people.‘ People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war… Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow – that’s vulnerability.

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

When I was running training, we would fire a couple of leaders from every SEAL team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability – it was a question of their ability to listen.

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

I have too many clothes, I have too many options.

I bought a gun and chose drugs instead.

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.

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

At the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are.

I never do anything that I don’t want to do.

I did used to have nightmares about the idea that when I die, there is a spark of consciousness which basically creates the world. ‚Is the world going to disappear if this spark of consciousness disappears? And how do I know it won’t? How do I know there’s anything there except what I’m conscious of?‘

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.

Life is anything but predictable.

All of us knows, not what is expedient, not what is going to make us popular, not what the policy is, or the company policy – but in truth each of us knows what is the right thing to do. And that’s how I am guided.

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

I think that a president needs to have a variety of views presented. But also, there has to be a team effort, because otherwise, I think it creates a dissonance and difficulty.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.

If you want to be a good strategist, you can never just go off a principle you read in a book. You need to adapt what you do to the situation; no rule of thumb is true all the time.

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

There are many things that I don’t understand.

You can’t keep your mind on fighting when you’re thinking about a woman. You can’t keep your concentration. You feel like sleeping all the time.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

When you’re 40, you can’t ride the fence anymore. You gotta make definite decisions about your life.

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

I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not. I’m really confused now.

In too much of the West, everyone wants the guarantee of safety, and never having to make any decisions.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

Naturally, there are times when every woman likes to be flattered… to feel she is the most important thing in someone’s world. Only a man can paint this picture.

Those who cry out that the government should ‚do something‘ never even ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did something, compared to what actually happened when the government did nothing.

‚Tis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

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.

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

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

The world’s biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.

I just hate meetings. Though it’s true that once you’ve made a lot of money, people around you might be full of ideas about ways to make lots more money and might be disappointed that you don’t want to seize every opportunity to do so.

I had three points I wanted to make: That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job. But I didn’t make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.

The more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up control over their life.

A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.

Why should I be studying for a future that soon may not exist?

I never make conscious decisions.

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.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

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