quotations about choice
He who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides never decides.
HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL
attributed, Wise Words and Quotes
A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
The Proud Highway
Nothing is fun when you don't have a choice.
FREDERIK POHL
Gateway
We all imagine ourselves the agents of our destiny, capable of determining our own fate. But have we truly any choice in when we rise, or when we fall, or does a force larger than ourselves bid us our direction? Is it evolution that takes us by the hand, does science point our way, or is it God who intervenes keeping us safe?
MOHINDER SURESH
"Chapter Two 'Don't Look Back'", Heroes
There are many roads to the same place.
LITTLE JOHN
"The Enemy of My Enemy", Robin Hood
When in doubt of what is right, consult your pillow overnight.
MEXICAN PROVERB
Imagine a captain of a ship the moment a shift of direction must be made; then he may be able to say: I can do either this or that. But if he is not a mediocre captain he will also be aware that during all this the ship is ploughing ahead with its ordinary velocity, and thus there is but a single moment when it is inconsequential whether he does this or does that. So also with a person--if he forgets to take into account the velocity--there eventually comes a moment where it is no longer a matter of an Either/Or, not because he has chosen, but because he has refrained from it, which also can be expressed by saying: Because others have chosen for him-or because he has lost himself.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
Either/Or
Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN
Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters
Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the face of alternatives by means of volitional choice.
AYN RAND
Atlas Shrugged
Now I must live with the consequences of the choice I made. And I will not call it the wrong choice. That would be foolish and pointless. That choice led me to everything that has happened since, including this very moment, and the choices I make today or tomorrow or next week will lead me to the next and next present moments in my life. It is all a journey ... I have come to understand that that is what life is all about--a journey and the courage and energy always to take the next step and the next without judgement about what was right and what was wrong.
MARY BALOGH
Simply Love
There's no liberty like the freedom of having our own choice, whether we will live to the world, or to ourselves.
L'ESTRANGE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Of harmes two the less is for to chose.
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
Troilus and Criseyde