Quotes about the decision
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“A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Source: Awaken the Giant Within (1992), p. 49
Source: Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement

“The awareness of the damage done by severe mental illness—to the individual himself and to others—and fears that it may return again play a decisive role in many suicides”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide

Fear, Suicide

“Faith isn't knowledge, Rachel. Faith is a tool. Faith keeps us going until we get the knowledge. Faith keeps us striving until we reach the consequences of our most important decisions.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Chasing the Prophecy

Faith, Knowledge

“making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Dreams, Strong

“Certainly there are times in all of our lives when bad things happen, or things don’t turn out as we had hoped. But that’s when we we must a decision that we’re going to be happy inspite of our circumstances.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

Happiness, Hope, Time

“The girls took into their own hands decisions better left to God. They became too powerful to live among us, too self-concerned, too visionary, too blind.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Virgin Suicides

Source: The Virgin Suicides

God, Girl

“Anyone who says that women do not have influence in men's decisions makes a vast and stupid mistake.”

Lisa See book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Source: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Women, Men, Stupidity

“It's strange, I think, the way our lives turn out. Moments of circumstance, when later combined with conscious decisions and actions and a boatload of hope, can eventually forge a future that seems predestined.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

Hope, Way, Thinking, Future

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

New Year

“I have noticed that doing the sensible thing is only a good idea when the decision is quite small. For the life-changing things, you must risk it.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Life, Idea, Change

“True' and 'false' are the evasions of people who never want to arrive at a decision. Truth is something without end.”

Robert Musil book The Man Without Qualities

Source: The Man Without Qualities

People, Truth, Falseness

“Once one becomes a man, he can and must make his own decisions. But I do offer warning. Even a good thing can become destructive if taken to excess.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Alloy of Law

“Successful people make their decisions quickly and change their minds slowly. Failures make their decisions slowly and change their minds quickly.”

Andy Andrews (1959) author and corporate speaker

Source: The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success

People, Failure, Change, Success

“In the shadow of my hurt, forgiveness feel like a decision to reward my enemy. But in the shadow of the cross, forgiveness is merely a gift from one undeserving soul to another.”

Andy Stanley (1958) American Christian minister

Source: It Came from Within!: The Shocking Truth of What Lurks in the Heart

Feeling, Soul, Forgiveness, Hurt

“Time obliterates the fictions of opinion and confirms the decisions of nature.”
Opinionis enim commenta delet dies, naturae iudicia confirmat.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

De Natura Deorum – On the Nature of the Gods (45 BC)
Variant: For time destroys the fictions of error and opinion, while it confirms the determinations of nature and of truth.
Book II, section 2; translation by Francis Brooks
Variant: Time destroys the figments of the imagination, while confirming the judgments of nature.

Nature, Time

“Your destiny is shaped by choice, never by chance. Beware the decisions you make, no matter how small, for they will be your salvation… or your death.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Death, Chance

“I think when we make choices—for
each choice is individual of the choices we have made before—we must examine not
only our reasons for making them but what result they will have, and whether good people will be hurt by our decisions.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

People, Thinking, Hurt

“In my house I'm the boss, my wife is just the decision maker.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Housing, For Wife

“Taking a deep breathe, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life.
I walked away.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Life

“Life is a tapestry woven by the decisions we make.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Kiss of the Night

Life

“Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.”

John Irving book Until I Find You

Source: Until I Find You (2005), ch. 25, p. 493

Life, Sense

“For children love is a feeling; for adults, it is a decision. Children wait to learn if their love is true by seeing how long it lasts; adults make their love true by never wavering from their commitment.”

Orson Scott Card book Pathfinder

Source: Pathfinder

Love, Children, Feeling, Learning

“Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Source: P.S. I Love You

Happiness, Personality

“Tradionally, parents made decisions for a child, because presumably they are looking out for his or her best interests. But if they are blinded, instead, by the best interests of another one of their children, the system breaks down.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Children, Parent

“Tennis taught me so many lessons in life. One of the things it taught me is that every ball that comes to me, I have to make a decision. I have to accept responsibility for the consequences every time I hit a ball.”

Billie Jean King (1943) American tennis player

Life, Time

“The most decisive actions of our life — I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future — are, more often than not, unconsidered.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Les Faux Monnayeurs (1925), Pt. 3, ch. 16

Life, Future

“Every decision you make, makes you. Never let other people choose who you’re going to be.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Lost Herondale

People

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

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Question, Science, Loss

“She had been proud of his decision to serve his country, her heart bursting with love and admiration the first time she saw him outfitted in his dress blues.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Source: The Lucky One

Love, Time, Heart, Country

“Start taking bad decisions and it will take you to a place where others only dream of being.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

Dreams

“Being in command means making tough decisions. Not being in command means shutting up and doing what you're told.
--Artemis Fowl”

Eoin Colfer book The Artemis Fowl Files

Source: The Artemis Fowl Files

“Make whatever decision you wish but never forget one thing: all of you are much better than you believed. Take advantage of the chance that tragedy has given you; not everyone is capable of doing so”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Chance, Forgetting

“Decisions. Where, what, why. Can't handle them. So I'm prolonging the indecision with higher education.”

Kamila Shamsie (1973) Pakistani writer

Source: Salt and Saffron

Education, Indecision

“Don't let fear govern your decision.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Guardian

Source: The Guardian

Fear

“I thought about how one tiny decision can change a life. A decision that takes only a split second to make.”

Anita Shreve (1946–2018) American writer

Source: Light on Snow

Life, Change

“We must set aside our wishes and give heed to reality. Nobody can accept the truth while hiding from it. When a decision matters, we have to stare at the truth unflinchingly. Only then can we find peace in our choices.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Chasing the Prophecy

Truth, Peace, Reality

“However, he also trusted me to make my own decisions. Contradicting me or telling me what to do wasn't in his nature - even though he secretly may have wanted to.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Nature

“Now, even more than the evening before, he could think of no one with whom to compare her. She had become absolute, beyond comparison. She had become decision and fate.”

Yasunari Kawabata book Thousand Cranes

Source: Thousand Cranes

Fate, Thinking

“We all know that it is women who make the decisions, but we have to let men think that the decisions are theirs. It is an act of kindness on the part of women.”

Alexander McCall Smith book The Full Cupboard of Life

Source: The Full Cupboard of Life

Women, Men, Thinking, Parting

“Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by "opinions" when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

“If we actually thought about every decision we made, we'd be paralyzed… You have to decide which decisions you're actually going to make, and then you have to let the rest of them go.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

“It was too late - everything was too late. For years now he had dreamed the world away, basing his decisions upon emotions unstable as water.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

World, Dreams, Water

“Your decisions will determine direction. Your direction will determine destination. Let”

Lysa TerKeurst

The Best Yes: Making Wise Decisions in the Midst of Endless Demands

“Life is filled with difficult decisions, and winners are those who make them.”

Dan Brown book Deception Point

Source: Deception Point

Life

“The worst decisions of your life will always be those that are made out of fear.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Silence

Life, Fear

“Just once I want it to be easy and neat. But no, there is never a good decision. I pick what I can live with.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

“All broken hearts are circumstantial. Every lovelorn jerk is the victim of bad timing, good intentions, and someone else’s poor decision making.”

Joshua Ferris Then We Came to the End

Source: Then We Came to the End

Jerk, Time, Heart

“Decisions are best made by the people affected by them.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Source: My Life on the Road

People

“The threads of circumstance that lead to tomorrow are so tenuous that all the fussing and worrying about decisions is futile compared to the pure randomness of existence.”

Nick Bantock (1949) British artist

“Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Thinking, Success

“Don't decide yet," Hephaestus advised. "Wait until daybreak. Daybreak is a good time for decisions.”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Time, Waiting

“You always have a choice. Don't ever imagine you don't. Whatever you do, it's a decision and you have to accept responsibility for it. That's when honor becomes more than empty words.”

Lynn Flewelling Stalking Darkness

Source: Stalking Darkness

Imagination

“Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.”

Michael Jordan (1963) American retired professional basketball player and businessman

“She had not made a decision to give up sex, only the clamor of romance, because it was exhausting her, doing her no good and too much harm…”

Michelle Herman (1955) American writer

Source: Dog

Sex

“My job is a decision-making job, and as a result, I make a lot of decisions.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

“Being with you is the best thing that's ever happened to me, the one perfect decision I've made in a lifetime of fumbling and poor judgment. I'd go through it all again to be by your side. Never doubt that. Never doubt how I feel about you.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: The Ruby Circle

Feeling, Perfection

“Niceness is a decision, a strategy of social interaction; it is not a character trait.”

Gavin de Becker (1954) American engineer

Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“But with your life you make a few bad decisions, get unlucky a few times, whatever, but you have to keep going, right?”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Time of My Life

Life, Time

“In life, you have to take lots of decisions and if you don't take decisions you would never do anything because you would spend all your time choosing between things you could do.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Life, Time

“If we wait until life is in order before making our decision, we'll never make any”

Judith McCoy Miller (1944) American writer

Source: An Uncertain Dream

Life, Waiting

“Courage, like so many other things, was not something one did or didn't have; it was a decision, a choice.”

Linda Lael Miller (1949) American writer

Source: The Creed Legacy

Courage

“It is my great hope someday, to see science and decision makers rediscover what the ancients have always known. Namely that our highest currency is respect.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (1960) Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader and risk analyst

Source: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Hope, Science

“If you always make the right decision, the safe decision,
the one most people make, you will be the same as everyone else.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

People

“Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions.”

James C. Collins (1958) American business consultant and writer

Source: How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

“I am sorry my decisions do not meet with your approval, but nevertheless, they are mine, and the consequences are also mine.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: The Dead Girls' Dance

“Before you make a decision," he said, "I want you to know that I love you.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

Love

“The greatest gift God gave us is the power to make decisions.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra

God

“I had made a decision, although I hardly knew it yet. It's often that way with decisions, they're made in some hidden part of us and the awareness secretes itself slowly into that conscious part of us that imagines it decides.”

Neil Jordan Mistaken

Source: Mistaken

Secret, Way, Imagination, Parting

“I needed to choose between the one thing that really filled m thoughts-my love for that woman-and losing my freedom and all the choices that the future promised me. To be honest, the decision was easy.
-Lukas Jessen-Petersen”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: The Witch Of Portobello

Love, Freedom, Future

“That was the only decision there was once upon a time: what to do with the night.”

Harry Crews (1935–2012) Novelist, short story writer, essayist

Source: A Feast of Snakes

Time, Night

“Shall I call the others back in?"
He nodded. "Why ask me? It's all of you who are making the decisions.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: Erak's Ransom

“Men. You can't live with them… and you can't legally shoot them. I tossed out my husband eight years ago and got a llama instead. Best decision I ever made.”

Jodi Picoult book Lone Wolf

Source: Lone Wolf

Men

“Only make decisions that support your self-image, self-esteem, and self-worth.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Support

“Doctor."" Gideon set one ankle on the opposite knee and settled back, creating a picture of unyielding decisiveness.
""The only way I'm keeping my hands off her is if I'm dead. Find another way to fix us.""”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Chapter 3 pg 50
Source: Reflected in You

Way, Dead

“Death really did not matter to him but life did, and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), p. 119
Context: In the shattered schoolhouse where for the first time he had felt the security of power, a few feet from the room where he had come to know the uncertainty of love, Arcadio found the formality of death ridiculous. Death really did not matter to him but life did and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia. He did not speak until they asked him for his last request.

Life, Death, Fear, Feeling

“Do you want to know why men name their penis? So the most important decisions in their life aren't made by a stranger.”

Linda Howard (1950) American writer

Source: After the Night

Life, Men

“I've made a decision and now I must face the consequences.”

J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer

“The two important things that I did learn were that you are as powerful and strong as you allow yourself to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavour is taking the first step, making the first decision.”

Robyn Davidson (1950) Australian writer

Source: Tracks

Strong, Learning, Parting

“Ever dumb thing I ever done in my life there was a decision I made before that got me into it. It was never the dumb thing. It was always some choice I'd made before it.”

Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses

Source: All the Pretty Horses

Life

“… mediocre people find their way into positions of authority… because when it comes to even the most important positions, our selection decisions are a good deal less rational than we think.”

Malcolm Gladwell book Blink

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

People, Way, Thinking

“good decisions requires the development”

Victor Sperandeo (1945) American businessman

Trader Vic--Methods of a Wall Street Master

“Don't make decisions out of fear. They never get yo anywhere you want to go.”

Danielle Steel (1947) American author of romance novels

Source: Malice

Fear

“An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

“If our life is poured out in useless words, we will never hear anything, never become anything, and in the end, because we have said everything before we had anything to say, we shall be left speechless at the moment of our greatest decision.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Source: Thoughts in Solitude

Life

“… but it is good to be several floors up in the dead of night wondering whether you are any good or not and the only decision you can make is that you did it…”

Frank O'Hara book Lunch Poems

Source: Lunch Poems

Night, Dead

“When you don’t know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.”

Jason Fried software entrepreneur

Source: Rework

“… every time you make a decision to be less than what God wants for you, you're denying yourself some of God's blessings. It's up to you. You can live a life with God's blessings, or just exist with all the consequences of choosing wrong.”

Terri Blackstock (1957) American writer

Source: Last Light

Life, God, Time

“That's why I want you there, he said. You're unpredictable, and that can be the difference between success and failure. Most people make decisions in anger, fear, love, or obligation. You make decisions to irritate people.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: For a Few Demons More

Love, People, Fear, Failure

“We cannot know the future. All we can do is face it bravely. We should take heed of those we love and respect. But in the end, we make every decision alone.”

Juliet Marillier book Seer of Sevenwaters

Source: Seer of Sevenwaters

Love, Future

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Attributed to Emerson in The Gift of Depression : Twenty-one Inspirational Stories Sharing Experience, Strength, and Hope (2001) by John F. Brown, p. 56, no prior occurrence of this a statement has been located; it seems to be derived from one which occurs in The Alchemist (1988) by Paulo Coelho, p. 22: When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
Misattributed

Universe