Decision Making Quotes
Top 50 Decision Making Quotes
No 1 (Best quote!)
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
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.
No 3
We only think when we are confronted with problems,
- John Dewey (1859-1952), American
educational philosopher, pictured right.
Henry Kaiser (1882-1967), the American businessman, pictured right, also comments:
Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.
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
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
We must take things as we find them, and not as we wish them to be.
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), pictured
right, French leader.
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
Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.
-Malcolm Gladwell, pictured right, in Blink (2005)
No 7
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
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
Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions.
-Peter Senge, pictured right, in The Fifth Discipline (1990)
No10
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.
- Blaise Pascal (1623–62)
French scientist and philosopher, pictured right.
No 11
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
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
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
Action is eloquence.
(Corialanus in Corialanus)
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
Two other thinkers agree:
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
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
Good reasons must of force give place to better.
(Brutus in Julius
Caesar)
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
No 16
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
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)
No 18
Delay is preferable to error
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American
president, pictured right above.
J. R. R. Tolkien (pictured right) in The Lord of the Rings agrees:
Short cuts make long delays (said by Pippin)
No 19
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
Things do not happen. They are made to happen.
- John F. Kennedy (1917-63) American
president, pictured right.
No 21
Choices are the hinges of destiny.
- Pythagoras (c.570-495 BC),Greek philosopher, pictured right.
No 22
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
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
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
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:
Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.
- Edmund Burke (1729-97), pictured right, the
Irish-born British Member of Parliament
When the facts change, I change my
mind.
- John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), English economist,
pictured right.
Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true!
- Homer Simpson, American cartoon
character, pictured right,
No 26
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
But above all try something.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945),
American president, pictured right.
No 28
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
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
Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing,
- Warren
Buffett (1930-), American share investor, pictured right.
No 31
Bedside manners are no substitute for the right diagnosis.
- Alfred Sloan (1875-1966), American boss of
General Motors 1923-46, pictured right, .
No 32
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
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
If you don’t take risks, you won’t achieve anything.
- Richard Branson (1950- ), English founder
of Virgin, pictured right, .
No 35
To delay action is the same as death,
- Lenin (1870-1924), pictured right, Russian leader
No 36
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
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
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
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
The ancestor of every action is a thought.
- Ralph Waldo
Emerson (1803-1882), American writer and philosopher, pictured right,
No 41
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
- David Hume (1711-76),
Scottish philosopher,pictured right.
No 42
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
You must do the things you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
American civil rights campaigner, pictured right.
No 44
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
Take nothing on its looks, take everything on evidence,
(Mr. Jaggers in Great
Expectations)
- Charles Dickens (1812-70),
pictured right, English novelist
No 46
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
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
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
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
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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