Thou hadst better eat salt with the Philosophers of Greece, than sugar with the Courtiers of Italy.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1740 ed.)
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Quotations about:
choices
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
“There’s a right thing to do,” Holden said.
“You don’t have a right thing, friend,” Miller said. “You’ve got a whole plateful of maybe a little less wrong.”
Daniel Abraham (b. 1969) American writer [pseud. James S. A. Corey (with Ty Franck), M. L. N. Hanover]
Leviathan Wakes, ch. 36 (2011) [with Ty Franck]
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I think we’d like life to be a train. And you get on and pick a destination and get off. And it turns out to be a sailboat. And everyday, you have to see where the wind is and check the currents and see if there’s anybody else on the boat you can help out. But it is a sailboat ride. And the weather changes, and the currents change, and the wind changes. It’s not a train ride. That’s the hardest thing I’ve had to accept in my life. I just thought I had to pick the right train.
Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) American minister, academic, author
Interview (2014-11-09), “Why Life Is Like a Sailboat Ride,” by Oprah Winfrey, Super Soul Sunday, 05×522, Oprah Winfrey Network
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Starts at 0:48 in the linked video. Usually just rendered to as "I think we'd like life to be a train ... but it turns out to be a sailboat."
I’m extremely skeptical of the “language of addiction.” I never saw heroin or cocaine as “my illness.” I saw them as some very bad choices that I walked knowingly into. I fucked myself — and, eventually, had to work hard to get myself un-fucked.
And I’m not going to tell you here how to live your life.
I’m just saying, I guess, that I got very lucky.
And luck is not a business model.
Anthony Bourdain (1956–2018) American chef, author, travel documentarian
Medium Raw, ch. 5 (2010)
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That is the question of the New Frontier. That is the choice our nation must make — a choice that lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort — between national greatness and national decline — between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of “normalcy” — between determined dedication and creeping mediocrity.
All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we cannot fail to try.John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Speech (1960-07-15), “The New Frontier,” Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles
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(Source (Video)). In the the actual delivered speech, Kennedy says "... between dedication or mediocrity. All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we shall do. And we cannot fail their trust, and we cannot fail to try."
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Letter (1962-03-02) to Pres. John Kennedy
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Quoted in Galbraith, Ambassador’s Journal, ch. 15 (1969). On the need to seek a settlement with Hanoi over the growing conflict in Viet Nam.
"Politics is the art of the possible" was a comment by Otto von Bismarck.
One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In stopping to think through the meaning of what I have learned, there is much that I believe intensely, much I am unsure of. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
You Learn by Living, Foreword (1960)
