"the touchstone of a free act - from the decision to get out of bed in the morning or take a walk in the afternoon to the highest resolutions by which we bind ourselves for the future - is always that we know that we could also have left undone what we actually did."
Decision quotes
Decision
4.2K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Decision
Browse quotes that often appear alongside decision — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Decision quotes (page 45 of 208)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"But for me, you also have to be conscious of what is going to play. And that includes playing with. Sometimes it's just a vibe. It's what's going to make this scene work. And sometimes there may be something that restricts you that has to do with something that maybe is historically accurate. And then you have to weigh that decision and give up something for a scene to work."
"In 2006, the Blockbuster board got together and said, ‘Do you know anyone using Netflix.’ …Look how that worked out. That is what happens when you put ten 80-year-old guys in a room…Be on record. Be on the right side of history. You don’t want to be the person that supported the Blockbuster decision."
"Where magic is concerned, there is always an initial decision, an initial willingness to let it enter your life. If that is not there neither is magic."
"After a while it sort of began to rain, which is to say that it was the kind of rain that never comes to a decision about whether it's actually raining or not. Driving in it, you would never have been certain whether or not to turn on your wipers."
"I was raised Catholic. But if someone says I was raised in some religion, that's insufficient information to actually know what was going on. The real question is Was the religion in the household? The answer is no. Important decisions in the household were executed rationally and secularly. So as a result, the foundations of my reasoning derive not from religion but from the rational analysis of circumstances."
"I try to educate the public and let them make the decisions for themselves."
"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."
"Amor deliria nervosa: It affects your mind so that you cannot think clearly, or make rational decisions about your own well-being. Symptom number twelve."
"History and the generations to come will judge our leaders by the decisions they make in the coming weeks."
"You don't have to turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you. Things can't shape our decisions by themselves."
"Misperceiving that there is one correct choice is a common mistake. Coming to understand that there are usually a few good choices--and then there's the one you pick, commit to, and make great--is the best way to make flexible, optimal, good decisions in life."
"God's is the causality at the level of our being, and therefore the roots of our freedom. Ours in causality is determinative of what kind of being we're going to be through our free choices, what kind of action we are going to do through our decisions."
"Each decision - to kill, to sign a petition, to write a letter, to make a speech, to attack, to lie, to surrender - was made at some point in somebody's day."
"Autumn finally arrived. And when it did, I came to a decision. Something had to give: I couldn't keep on living like this."
"Reagan did not suffer from the dismal plague of doubts which has assailed so many politicians in our times and which has rendered them incapable of clear decisions."
"Gentlemen, I have spent the night thinking about this Peruvian (peace) initiative and I have to tell you that if it is your decision to accept then you will have to find another Prime Minister."
"I've learned one thing in politics. You don't take a decision until you have to."
"Whether it is in the United States or in mainland Europe, written constitutions have one great weakness. That is that they contain the potential to have judges take decisions which should properly be made by democratically elected politicians."
"Who decides when the applause should die down? It seems like it's a group decision; everyone begins to say to themselves at the same time, "Well, okay, that's enough of that.""