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Quotations about choice
Note that not all quotations have been tagged, so the Search function may find additional quotations on this topic.
Marriage is not a noun, it’s a verb. It’s not something you have, like a house or a car. It is not a piece of paper that proves you are husband and wife. Marriage is a behavior. It is a choice you make over and over again, reflected in the way you treat your partner every day.
Barbara De Angelis (b. 1951) American relationship consultant, lecturer, author
Ask Barbara: The 100 Most-Asked Questions About Love, Sex, and Relationships (1997)
(Source)
This is the affirmation on which democracy rests … [W]e can all be responsible … We become what we do. So does the world we live in, if enough of us do it — whether “it” be good or detestable. This is the burden of freedom: that it is all our fault or our credit.
Herbert Agar (1897-1980) American journalist and historian
“The Perils of Democracy” (1966)
I chose and my world was shaken. —
So what?
The choice may have been mistaken,
The choosing was not.
You have to move on.Stephen Sondheim (b. 1930) American composer and lyricist
“Sunday in the Park with George” (1984)
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.
William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
(Attributed)
Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong — but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong! Heaven save us from poltroons who fear to make a choice.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Double Star (1956)
Fate chooses our relatives, we choose our friends.
Jacques Delille (1738-1813) French poet, translator
“Malheur et Pitié,” Canto 1 (1803)
We choose our joys and our sorrows long before we experience them.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher
Poor Richard’s Almanack
It’s important to be kind. You can’t know all the times that you’ve hurt people in tiny, significant ways. It’s easy to be cruel without meaning to be. There’s nothing you can do about that. But you can choose to be kind. Be kind.
Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music, and rings itself all the way through; and thou shalt make of it a dance, a dirge, or a grand life-march as thou wilt.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Attributed)
Variant: "Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings itself the way through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life-march, as thou wilt."
The earliest reference I can find to this is its quotation in (or perhaps adjacent to) Kate W. Hamilton, "Ariel Seaton's Rainy Day," The Ladies' Repository (Jan 1868).
There isn’t a way things should be. There’s just what happens, and what we do.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
A Hat Full of Sky (2004)
There’s always, always a choice. My options might really, truly suck, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a choice.
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Cold Days (2012)
Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.
Jeff Bezos (b. 1964) American business magnate, entrepreneur, investor
Commencement Speech, Princeton University (2010)
(Source)
If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none.
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (15 Apr 1778)
In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.
Carlos Casteneda (1931-1999) Peruvian-American writer, mystic, anthropologist
The Teachings of Don Juan (1968)
Also attributed to Journey to Ixtlan (1972).
You don’t get to control any outcome, only every choice you make along the way.
Other Authors and Sources
Stephen C. Paul
