Decision Making Quotes
Top 50 Decision Making Quotes
No 1 (Best quote!)![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-drucker.jpg)
No decision can be better than the people who have to carry it out.
- Peter Drucker, pictured right, in Practice of Management (1954)
In Management: Tasks,
Responsibilities, Practices (1973), Drucker also said:
The effective decision maker...organizes dissent.
No 2![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-slim.jpg)
When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take, choose the
bolder.
- William (Bill) Slim (1891-1970), leader
of the British army in Burma 1943-5, pictured right.
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-dewey.jpg)
No 3
We only think when we are confronted with problems,
- John Dewey (1859-1952), American
educational philosopher, pictured right.
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-kaiser.jpg)
Henry Kaiser (1882-1967), the American businessman, pictured right, also comments:
Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-covey.jpg)
Stephen Covey, pictured right, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People (1989) adds:
The way we see the problem is the problem.
No 4![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-rousseau.jpg)
There are two things to be considered with regard to any scheme... is it good in itself?...can it be easily put
into practice?”
- Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1712-78) Swiss philosopher, pictured right.
No 5![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-napoleon.jpg)
We must take things as we find them, and not as we wish them to be.
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), pictured
right, French leader.
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-einstein.jpg)
Albert Einstein (1879-1955),
German-born American scientist,pictured right, says something similar:
A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
No 6![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-gladwell.jpg)
Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.
-Malcolm Gladwell, pictured right, in Blink (2005)
No 7![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-galbraith.jpg)
A wrong decision isn't forever; it can always be reversed. The losses from a delayed decision are forever; they
can never be retrieved.
- J. K. Galbraith (1908–2006). Canadian economist,
pictured right.
No 8![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-james.jpg)
If things are to move upward, someone must take the first step and assume the risk of it.
- William James (1842–1910),
American philosopher, pictured right.
No 9![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-senge.jpg)
Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions.
-Peter Senge, pictured right, in The Fifth Discipline (1990)
No10![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-pascal.jpg)
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.
- Blaise Pascal (1623–62)
French scientist and philosopher, pictured right.
No 11![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-chesterton.jpg)
It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem.
- G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936), English writer, pictured right.
No 12![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-scott-peck.jpg)
The best decision makers are willing to suffer the most over their decisions but still retain the ability to be
decisive.
-M. Scott Peck (1936-2005),
American psychiatrist, pictured right.
No 13![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-keynes.jpg)
There is no harm in being sometimes wrong - especially if one is promptly found out.
- John Maynard
Keynes (1883-1946), English economist, pictured right..
Keynes also comments:
It’s better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.
No 14![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-shakespeare.jpg)
Action is eloquence.
(Corialanus in Corialanus)
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
Two other thinkers agree:
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-nightingale.jpg)
One’s feelings waste themselves in words. They ought to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring
results,
- Florence
Nightingale (1820-1910), the English nurse,pictured right
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-bronte-charlotte.jpg)
Human beings ... must have action; and they will make it, if they cannot find it.
(Jane in Jane Eyre)
- Charlotte Brontë (1816-55),
English writer, pictured right
No 15![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-shakespeare.jpg)
Good reasons must of force give place to better.
(Brutus in Julius
Caesar)
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
No 16![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-einstein.jpg)
We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
- Albert
Einstein (1879-1955) German-born American scientist, pictured right.
No 17![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-kay.jpg)
Effective decision makers are distinguished not so much by the superior extent of their knowledge as by the
recognition of its limitations.
John Kay, pictured right, Obliquity (2010)
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-jefferson.jpg)
No 18
Delay is preferable to error
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American
president, pictured right above. ![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-tolkien.jpg)
J. R. R. Tolkien (pictured right) in The Lord of the Rings agrees:
Short cuts make long delays (said by Pippin)
No 19![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-seneca.jpg)
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are
difficult.
- Seneca (4BC-65 AD) Greek
philosopher, pictured right.
No 20![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-kennedy-jf.jpg)
Things do not happen. They are made to happen.
- John F. Kennedy (1917-63) American
president, pictured right.
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-pythagorus.jpg)
No 21
Choices are the hinges of destiny.
- Pythagoras (c.570-495 BC),Greek philosopher, pictured right.
No 22![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-ebban.jpg)
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives,
- Abba Eban 1915– 2002) Israeli diplomat, pictured right.
No 23![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-parkinson.jpg)
The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the
decisions he is allowed to take.
- C. Northcote Parkinson 1909–93 English writer, pictured right.
No 24![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-ruskin.jpg)
Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is,
seeing the whole of them.
- John Ruskin (1819–1900), English writer
and philosopher, pictured right.
No 25![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-dickens.jpg)
Facts alone are wanted in life,
(Thomas Gradgrind in Hard Times,
1854).
- Charles Dickens (1812-70), English writer, pictured
right
Three other thinkers also emphasize the importance
of facts:
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-burke.jpg)
Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.
- Edmund Burke (1729-97), pictured right, the
Irish-born British Member of Parliament
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-keynes.jpg)
When the facts change, I change my
mind.
- John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), English economist,
pictured right.
![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-simpson-homer.jpg)
Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true!
- Homer Simpson, American cartoon
character, pictured right,
No 26![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-descartes.jpg)
Divide each difficulty into an many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
- René Descartes (1596-1650),
French philosopher, pictured right.
No 27![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-roosevelt-fd.jpg)
But above all try something.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945),
American president, pictured right.
No 28![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-truman.jpg)
All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.
- Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), American
president, pictured right,
No 29![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-buddha.jpg)
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
- Gautama Buddha (563-483 BC),
founder of Buddhism, pictured right.
No 30![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-buffett.jpg)
Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing,
- Warren
Buffett (1930-), American share investor, pictured right.
No 31![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-sloan.jpg)
Bedside manners are no substitute for the right diagnosis.
- Alfred Sloan (1875-1966), American boss of
General Motors 1923-46, pictured right, .
No 32![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-grove.jpg)
You have to pretend you’re 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can’t hesitate or hedge your bets.
- Andrew Grove (1936- ), American boss of
Intel,1987-98, pictured right, .
No 33![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-truman.jpg)
I am here to make decisions, and whether they prove right or wrong, I am going to make them,
- Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), American
president, pictured right, .
No 34![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-branson.jpg)
If you don’t take risks, you won’t achieve anything.
- Richard Branson (1950- ), English founder
of Virgin, pictured right, .
No 35![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-lenin.jpg)
To delay action is the same as death,
- Lenin (1870-1924), pictured right, Russian leader
No 36![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-roosevelt-ted.jpg)
There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.
- Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), pictured
right, American president
No 37![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-packard-david.jpg)
Take risks. Ask big questions. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; if you don’t make mistakes, you’re not reaching
far enough.
- David Packard (1912-96),
American co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (HP), pictured right,
No 38![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-hewlett.jpg)
All business proceeds on beliefs, or judgements of probabilities, and not on certainties.
- William (Bill)
Hewlett (1919-2001), American co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (HP), pictured right.
No 39![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-morita.jpg)
Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. But make sure you don’t make the same mistake twice.
- Akio Morita (1921-1999), co-founder of Sony,
pictured right,
No 40![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-emerson.jpg)
The ancestor of every action is a thought.
- Ralph Waldo
Emerson (1803-1882), American writer and philosopher, pictured right,
No 41![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-hume.jpg)
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
- David Hume (1711-76),
Scottish philosopher,pictured right.
No 42![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-wittgenstein.jpg)
The problems can be solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have always known.
- Ludwig
Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Austrian-born British philosopher, pictured right.
No 43![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-roosevelt-eleanor.jpg)
You must do the things you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
American civil rights campaigner, pictured right.
No 44![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-james.jpg)
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
- William James (1842-1910),
American psychologist and philosopher, pictured right.
No 45![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-dickens.jpg)
Take nothing on its looks, take everything on evidence,
(Mr. Jaggers in Great
Expectations)
- Charles Dickens (1812-70),
pictured right, English novelist
No 46![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-heller.jpg)
Colonel Cathcart was indefatigable that way, an industrious, intense, dedicated military tactician who
calculated day and night in the service of himself.
(from Catch-22)
- Joseph Heller (1923-99), American writer, pictured right.
No 47![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-tolkien.jpg)
It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish,
(Sam in The Lord of the
Rings)
- J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), English writer, pictured right
No 48![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-shakespeare.jpg)
The art of our necessities is strange and can make vile things precious,
(King Lear in King Lear)
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
No 49![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotes-de-bono.jpg)
The quality of any decision depends very much on the alternatives that are available to the decision maker.
- Edward de Bono, pictured right, Six Thinking Hats (1985)
No 50![Decision Making Quotes Decision Making Quotes](images/quotestal.jpg)
Our world is dominated by the extreme, the unknown, and the very improbable,
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, pictured right, in The Black Swan (2007)
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