- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
Decision Quotes
The weight of a choice, before and after it's made.
This page collects decision quotes spanning military campaigns, a wartime scientific effort that ultimately went nowhere, and the personal calculus behind everyday choices, like skipping a workout for a role. One entry recalls the internal tug-of-war before founding Teach For America. See our Choice for a closer look at that moment of deciding.
- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Moment
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- Nov 07, 2020
Most of us wake up every day and make decision that will make us happy, and generally decisions that will make us happy right then in the moment or that day. We are not really on a truth quest.
- Path
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- Nov 07, 2020
I have come to an odd belief, which is that we don't make decisions so much as the decisions make us. The goal of a decision isn't just to find the path forward, but to become someone entirely different than who we might have been as a function of the path we take.
- Experience
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- Nov 07, 2020
Any decision that I make, anything that I do, every single consideration of my day goes through the prism of what my former experience has been.
- Doing
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- Nov 07, 2020
Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a company is not allowed to provide a personal benefit to a decision maker in return for business. But hiring the sons and daughters of powerful executives and politicians is hardly just the province of banks doing business in China: it has been a time-tested practice here in the United States.
- New
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- Nov 07, 2020
Not reforming the NHS would have been a much easier decision for me as secretary of state to have taken. We could have just protected the NHS from cuts, put in an extra £12.5bn and left it there. But sooner or later the cracks would have started to show. New treatments would have been held back.
- Opportunity
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- Nov 07, 2020
I don't really have any regrets because if I choose not to do something there is usually a very good reason. Once I've made the decision I don't view it as a missed opportunity, just a different path.
- Deep
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- Nov 07, 2020
With the Google Brain project, we made the decision to build deep learning processes on top of Google's existing infrastructure.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
I have to say that I have no regrets about my decision to become a priest or about the major directions my ministry has taken me... I have been and am happy as a priest, and I have never been lonely... I could have used a bit more solitude.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
The decision to write full-time meant I couldn't afford to buy a house. A friend kindly offered me the use of his apartment in a thirty-six-story building full of newlywed couples in the southern area of Jakarta. I didn't like my working space at first, but the scenery and everything going on outside have worked their magic on me.
- Fear
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- Nov 07, 2020
No one needs to fear our decision to leave the E.U. We will do so carefully, reassuring our European friends and those businesses who are worrying about change.
- Fear
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- Nov 07, 2020
Fear is the enemy. I distrust it. Any feeling or decision I make that might be motivated by fear I quickly reassess.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
Concerned that others were not coming onto the summit and because I had no radio link to those below me, I began to wonder if there were difficulties down the mountain. I made the decision to descend.
- Government
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- Nov 07, 2020
I know very well that Berlin attaches great importance to NATO and solidarity, in terms of sharing the burden. For this reason, I feel confident that the German government will take the right decision, one that serves both German and NATO interests.
- Proactive
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- Nov 07, 2020