
“Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions.”
Desire https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/desire, Dallin H. Oaks, April 2011
Apparently a rephrasing of "Actions express priorities," from Peak Performers http://books.google.com/books?id=ztKNTGYyqokC&pg=PA78 (1987) by Charles A. Garfield. The phrase is adjacent to a Gandhi quote in at least one list of quotations alphabetized by last name.
Misattributed
“Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions.”
Desire https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/desire, Dallin H. Oaks, April 2011
“A priority is observed, not manufactured or assigned. Otherwise, it's necessarily not a priority.”
43 Folders http://www.43folders.com/2009/04/28/priorities
Websites, The 43folders website
Introduction to the story “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow” p. 166
Short fiction, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975)
“All our thoughts and beliefs are somehow hollow until they find expression in action.”
The Transition Timeline: for a local, resilient future, (2009), p. 167 http://www.darkoptimism.org/books.html#TheTransitionTimeline
“Cease all, whose actions ancient bards expressed:
A brighter valour rises in the West.”
Cesse tudo o que a Musa antiga canta,
Que outro valor mais alto se alevanta.
Stanza 3, lines 7–8 (tr. Richard Fanshawe). Compare:
Cedite Romani scriptores, cedite Grai!
Nescioquid maius nascitur Iliade.
Make way, you Roman writers, make way, Greeks!
Something greater than the Iliad is born.
Sextus Propertius, Elegies, II, xxxiv, 65–66
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto I
“Figure out the priorities so you wouldn’t fall into the trap of untimely priorities.”
The Great Master of Thought (Amen- Vol.3), Observing management
Remark made on May 8, 2013, as quoted in About That New 'Moderate' Iranian Cabinet . . . http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324635904578644333931206380, The Wall Street Journal, (August 7, 2013)
Maybe it's time for Apple to spin off the Mac as a separate company http://zdnet.com/article/maybe-its-time-for-apple-to-spin-off-the-mac-as-its-own-separate-company in ZDNet (2 January 2018)
The Rickover Effect (1992)
Context: To do a job effectively, one must set priorities. Too many people let their "in" basket set the priorities. On any given day, unimportant but interesting trivia pass through an office; one must not permit these to monopolize his time. The human tendency is to while away time with unimportant matters that do not require mental effort or energy. Since they can be easily resolved, they give a false sense of accomplishment. The manager must exert self-discipline to ensure that his energy is focused where it is truly needed.