Quotes about choosing
page 5

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: The Hunter

“My life - my personality, my habits, even my speech - is a combination of the books I choose to read, the people I choose to listen to, and the thoughts I choose to tolerate in my mind”

Andy Andrews (1959) author and corporate speaker

Life, People, Books, Reading

“A woman's strength should not be in her role, whatever she chooses to be, but in the power to choose that role.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

“I'll succeed,' Hazel promised. 'And Hecate? I'm not choosing one of your paths. I'm making my own.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“Choose always the way that seems the best, however rough it may be; custom will soon render it easy and agreeable.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, both Ancient and Modern (1908) by Tyron Edwards, p. 101

Way, Powerful

“Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

Books

“Burn all the maps to your body. I'm not here of my own choosing.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

“Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.”

W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American New Thought author

As quoted in How to Be the Employee Your Company Can't Live Without : 18 Ways to Become Indispensable (2006) by Glenn Shepard

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.
Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 7, p. 31

Life

“Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Love

“I've always thought it was about finding the right person. But it's about choosing the right person, isn't it?”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Personality

“The only good thing about having your back to the wall is that it makes it really easy to choose which way you're going to go.”

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

Way

“We name us and then we are lost, tamed
I choose words, more words, to cure the tameness, not the wildness”

Alice Notley (1945) American poet

Source: Mysteries of Small Houses

“Where we choose to be, where we choose to be--we have the power to determine that in our lives. We cannot reel time backward or forward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being.”

Sena Jeter Naslund (1942) American writer

Source: Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer

Time

“You can choose to be free, but it's last decision you'll ever make”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Decision

“There can be no justification for choosing any part of that which one knows to be evil.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

Evil, Parting

“Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.”

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

Understanding

“Life is a journey, Frannie darling," Feagan had once told me. "Choose well those with whom you travel."
As always, I've followed Feagan's counsel.”

Rachel Hawthorne (1950) American author

Source: Surrender to the Devil

Life, Travel

“They seemed to be able to choose. We seemed to be able to choose, then. We were a society dying of too much choice.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“They wore blouses with buttons down the front that suggested the possibilities of the word. These women could be undone; or not. They seemed to be able to choose.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Women

“We can’t choose what we want and don’t want and that’s the hard lonely truth. Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it’s going to kill us. We can’t escape who we are.”

Donna Tartt book The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

Truth

“It is an anxious, sometimes a dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by.”

Rumer Godden (1907–1998) English writer

Source: The Dolls' House

“Every person, all the events of your life, are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Variant: All the people, all the events in your life are put there for a reason. What you choose to do with them is up to you

Life, Personality

“Looks like I’m going to ruin your day, Big Boy. I choose to live my crappy life a little longer. (Susan)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dark Side of the Moon

Life, Boy

“Because if you're gonna make someone choose, then you shouldn't be surprised when they don't choose you.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

“Choosing with integrity means finding ways to speak up that honor your reality, the reality of others, and your willingness to meet in the center of that large field. It’s hard sometimes.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Way, Reality

“Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint!”

Jane Austen book Love and Freindship

Source: Love and Friendship

Madness

“You would rather face a life without me than to have me choose a life I would not choose for myself.”

John Scalzi (1969) American science fiction writer

Source: The Sagan Diary

Life

“I have no religion, but if I were to choose one, it would be that of Shariati's.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Religion

“Our attachments are our temple, what we worship, no? What we give ourselves to, what we invest with faith…. Attachments are of great seriousness. Choose your attachments carefully. Choose your temple of fanaticism with great care.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Faith

“Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

Imagination

“For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

“Everyone has the potential to be extraordinary. As long as you have a soul and free will, you can be anything, do anything, choose anything.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Soul

“How could you go about choosing something that would hold the half of your heart you had to bury?”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Mercy

Heart

“Why is she so stubborn? And disobedient?” Cameron barked a laugh. “Because Mackenzies always choose headstrong women. You didn’t really expect her to obey you, did you? No matter what the marriage vows say?”

Jennifer Ashley (1974) American author

Source: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie

Women, Marriage

“I couldn't help wondering, is my husband so unattractive that no woman has ever wanted him? Except me, of course. I must have wanted him, in a way, once, but I've forgotten why, and I was too young to know what I was choosing.”

Graham Greene book The End of the Affair

Source: The End of the Affair

Way, Help

“I choose you, Max. -Fang”

James Patterson book Maximum Ride

Source: Max

“If love was a choice, who would ever choose such exquisite pain?”

Margaret Landon (1903–1993) writer, missionary

Love, Pain

“The man who is honest and good ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

XI, 15
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XI
Source: The Apology, Phaedo & Crito of Plato/Golden Sayings of Epictetus/Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Strong

“No-one chooses me. I do not give anyone that right. I am Karsa Orlong of the Teblor. All choices belong to me.”

Steven Erikson book Reaper's Gale

Source: Reaper's Gale

“You expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine, but which I have never acknowledged.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Way, Universe, Appearance

“"Choosers will be beggars if the begging’s not their choosing," said the Dog.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Old Kingdom series (The Abhorsen Trilogy), Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr (2001), p. 398.

Dogs

“But now, I was beginning to wonder if you didn't always have to choose between turning away for good or rushing in deeper. In the moments that it really counts, maybe it's enough- more than enough, even- just to be there.
~Ruby, pg 399”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Variant: If you didn't always have to choose between turning away for good or rushing in deeper. In the moments that it really counts, maybe it's enough - more than enough, even - just to be there.
Source: Lock and Key

“So I would choose to be with you,
That's if the choice were mine to make,
But you can make decisions too,
And you can have this heart to break”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

Decision, Heart

“If only you could really use a fail-proof system to know who was worth keeping and who needed to be thrown away. It would make it so much easier to move through the world, picking and choosing what connections to make, or whether to make any at all.”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

World

“A genius is simply one who has taken full possession of his own mind and directed it toward objectives of his own choosing, without permitting outside influences to discourage or mislead him.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

“Question: When you’re one of the few people who can do something to fix a problem, just how responsible does that make you for it? Answer: It’s how you choose to answer that question that defines you.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

People, Question, Problem

“If I have to choose between you and me - I like me better.”

Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer

“Art’s something you choose to make … it’s a bringing together of … of everything around you into something that makes you more human, more khepri, whatever. More of a person.”

China Miéville book Perdido Street Station

Source: Perdido Street Station (2000), p. 82

Art, Personality

“Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.”

Patrick Lencioni (1965) American writer

Source: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

People, Thinking

“Man must choose whether to be rich in things or in the freedom to use them.”

Ivan Illich (1926–2002) austrian philosopher and theologist

Freedom

“Everything we do we choose. So what is there to regret? You are the person you chose to be.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

Personality

“We should always choose our books as God chooses our friends, just a bit beyond us, so that we have to do our level best to keep up with them.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

God, Books

“I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire.”

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Anthem (1937)

Love, Men

“You're always free to change your mind
and choose a different future, or a different past.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Change, Past, Future

“Attachment to being right creates suffering. When you have a choice to be right, or to be kind, choose kind and watch your suffering disappear.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Suffering

“What is the past but what we choose to remember?”

Amy Tan book The Bonesetter's Daughter

Variant: After all, Bao Bomu says, what is the past but what we choose to remember?
Source: The Bonesetter's Daughter

Past

“Between safety and adventure I choose adventure.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

American on Purpose (2009)
Source: American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot

“How torture is torture and humiliation is humiliation only when you choose to suffer.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Variant: Torture is torture and humiliation is humiliation only when you choose to suffer.
Source: Choke

Suffering

“I'm told there's no going back. So I'm choosing forward.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“History is hereditary only in this way: we, all of us, inherit everything, and then we choose what to cherish, what to disavow, and what do do next, which is why it's worth trying to know where things come from.”

Jill Lepore (1966) American historian

Way, History

“Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

As quoted in The World's Best Thoughts on Life & Living (1981) compiled by Eugene Raudsepp; also quoted in The Michigan Daily http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/nov/11-10-98/arts/arts2.html (10 November 1998)

Life, Change

“All of us heal in time. The strongest are born again. We only keep the scars we choose to keep.”

Alethea Kontis (1976) American writer

Source: Enchanted

Time

“And I envied her that she had chosen her work herself and was doing what she wanted to do. I don't suppose I had any idea what I 'wanted' and so I was chosen, not choosing. There's glory and honor in being chosen. But not much room for free will.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Idea, Envy

“Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Rising Strong

Courage

“Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough.”

Thornton Wilder Our Town

Source: Our Town

Life

“We cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don't matter at all.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

World, Idea, Success

“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”

Tony Schwartz (1952) American writer

Learning

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go…”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Variant: You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go.
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Shoe, Inspirational

“I'd learn that it's not just where you go, but how you choose to get there. So I pulled that sign off the green bike - ENJOY YOUR RIDE! - and went inside to take the first step toward doing just that.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Learning

“Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.”

Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Ancient Rome

Source: The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage

Feeling, Hurtful

“Tonight, I've finally learned to tell fantasy from reality. And, knowing the difference, I choose fantasy.”

David Henry Hwang M. Butterfly

Source: M. Butterfly

Reality, Learning

“If you could be either God’s worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose?”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

God

“If you insist on trying to get yourself killed, I insist on being the one who chooses what you wear while you recover”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Luke Garroway, Clary Fray, and Jocelyn Fray, pg. 221-222
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)
Context: Clary looked down at herself. She was wearing a pair of flannel pajamas, too short in the leg and tight in the chest, with fire trucks on them.
Luke raised an eyebrow. 'I think those were mine when I was a kid.'
'You can't seriously tell me there wasn't anything else you could have put me in.'
'If you insist on trying to get yourself killed, I insist on being the one who chooses what you wear while you recover,' Jocelyn said with a tiny smirk.
'The pajamas of vengeance,' Clary muttered.

“Choosers will be beggars if the begging's not their choosing," said the Dog
"What does that mean?"
"I have no idea," said the Dog”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Lirael

Dogs, Idea

“An individual chooses and makes himself.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …