There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

You and I are stuck with the necessity of taking the worst of two evils or none at all. So-I’m taking the immature Democrat as the best of the two. Nixon is impossible.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

I don’t think I would run for president.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

It’s absolutely normal that different human beings want to go different ways.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

In any decision for action, when you have to make up your mind what to do, there is always a ‚should‘ involved, and this cannot be worked out from, ‚If I do this, what will happen?‘ alone.

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

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

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong – these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

If I want to do well in racing I need to be more focused so I stopped going to school. If I wasn’t a very good driver it would not be a wise decision, but it gives me an advantage over my competitors.

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

It has not yet become obvious to me that there’s no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there’s no real problem, but I’m not sure there’s no real problem.

We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.

I love the attention but I don’t like too much of it.

A lot of people, because of my contempt for the false consolations of religion, think of me as a symbolic public opponent of that in extremis. And sometimes that makes me feel a bit alarmed, to be the repository of other people’s hope.

Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

The court generally moves in small steps rather than in one giant step.

To do a great right do a little wrong.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

That is how you get to be a writer, incidentally: you feel somehow marginal, somehow slightly off-balance all the time.

You can’t have it all all at once. Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all, but in given periods in time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

If you are ever in doubt as to whether to kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt.

My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative. I have never been a right-winger. It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. The teaching of the church is clear, and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.

It’s not easy being young. It’s hard to know what to do.

What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?

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.

It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.

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.

It’s very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.

As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.

A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

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

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

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

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

Let’s just be smart this time. I’m looking for smart.

We’re not like robots. God promises to guide us through the Holy Spirit, but He gives us the freedom to make our own decisions.

Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.

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

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

When in doubt, don’t.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

I have something in common with Nazis in that I am opposed to the radical Left. And when you oppose the radical Left, you end up being a part of a much larger group that includes Nazis in it.

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

I just usually go with my own taste. If I like something, and it happens to be against the law, well, then I might have a problem.

To summarize, draft resistance can make use of the inegalitarian nature of American society as a technique for increasing the cost of American aggression, and it threatens values that are important to those in a decision-making position.

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