Quotes about choices

“So. Tell me. What do you think? Which is better? To take action and perhaps make a fatal mistake - or to take no action and die slowly anyway?”

Honey, sometimes you’re going to be faced with situations where the line isn’t clear between what’s right and what’s wrong. Your heart will tell you to do one thing, and your brain will tell you to do something different. In the end, all that’s left is to look at both sides and go with your best judgment. (Chapter 13)

Right decision or wrong decision, it was a leader’s job to make it.

Decisions based on incomplete information are one thing, a fact of political life. Decisions made with no information are another.

Only the final choice would require a human decision: enter the Link, or decline to do so? It occurred to Chan that perhaps this was the choice that humans were least qualified to make. He recognized in himself the tendency to say, we’ve come so far, we can’t possibly change our minds now. People following that philosophy died climbing mountains, they signed disastrous contracts, they flew into hurricanes, and they embarked on lifelong commitments to the wrong mates. Perhaps they headed to the stars for the same reason.

Once you were committed to a course of action, you didn’t waste your time looking back and second-guessing the decision, because every action in life was taken on the basis of incomplete information. You looked at what you had, and you did all you could to improve the odds; but at some point you had to roll the dice—and live or die with whatever you had thrown.

When you got right down to it, every important decision in life was made with inadequate information.

I think “majority” is one of my least favorite words. It’s so often used to justify bad decisions.

The decor of her office was as sparse as her home, she realized. It said nothing about her. But when you didn’t care enough about your own decisions it was far more convenient to pay interior designers to make them for you.

If we’re not keenly aware of the choices we’re making, we’re not likely to work for better ones.

In such seconds of decision entire futures are made.

He knew what had to be done. It is not always the same as knowing what to do.