Quotes About Decision

Moral regrets sound like this: If only I'd done the right thing.

Temporal landmarks slow our thinking, allowing us to deliberate at a higher level and make better decisions

The lesson is plain: Speak up. Ask him out. Take that trip. Start that business. Step off the train.

Perhaps you're familiar with the First Law of Holes: "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." And perhaps you've ignored this law.

Think of this book as a new genre altogether—a when-to book.

Regret is a retrospective emotion. It springs into being when we look backward. But we can also use it prospectively and proactively—to gaze into the future, predict what we will regret, and then reorient our behavior based on our forecast.

Hay personas que prefieren decir "Sí", y hay otras que prefieren decir "No" —escribe Keith Johnstone—. Las que dicen "Sí" obtienen la recompensa de las aventuras que viven. Las que dicen "No" tienen su recompensa en la seguridad que obtienen.»

One of the most robust findings, in the academic research and my own, is that over time we are much more likely to regret the chances we didn't take than the chances we did.

We simply don't take issues of when as seriously as we take questions of what.

Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

A fifty-year-old woman in Arkansas said: I had an abortion at age twenty. That is the biggest regret of my life. My second-biggest regret is that I had another one at age twenty-five.

A fifty-eight-year-old woman in Puerto Rico regretted: Having an abortion. Having to say I'm sorry when I meet him/her in Heaven.

Boldness regrets sound like this: If only I'd taken the risk.

I could instead launch an Expedia-for-the-regretful site, which would include special travel packages for the legions of college graduates in the surveys who regretted not studying abroad.

Anticipating regret can sometimes steer us away from the best decision and toward the decision that most shields us from regret—as you'll discover again when you return to the office.

Regret aversion can often lead to decision aversion, many studies have shown.[28] If we focus too much on what we'll regret, we can freeze and decide not to decide.

The lesson: Clarity on how to think without clarity on how to act can leave people unmoved.

Regret is the quintessential upward counterfactual—the ultimate If Only.

Wu is seen taking a breath as if to speak . . . but the former taikonaut lets it out without saying anything. Her silence in this moment was surely spurred by conflicting desires—her duty to her team on one hand, versus her duty to maintain the secrets of her homeland on the other. With every word tantamount to a chess move, her decision to take no action here would prove a costly blunder. And an unnecessary one.

This is why Stern picked you at the last minute. On a damned hunch.

In the end, a man makes his own decisions. You decide, not the machine.

Campbell. « Et puis, je me suis dit, c'est ridicule, il faut le faire 

The President's speech suggested to me that were we to follow his leadership, we will be in Iraq not for months, but for years. I also hope I am wrong on this.

I think I finally chose the graduate degree in engineering primarily because it only took one year and law school took three years, and I felt the pressure of being a little behind - although I was just 22.