Quotes About Decision-making

The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative.

It is not a question of one General being better than another, but of one General being better than two.

In total war it is quite impossible to draw any precise line between military and non-military problems.

Power, for the sake of lording it over fellow-creatures or adding to personal pomp, is rightly judged base. But power in a national crisis, when a man believes he knows what orders should be given, is a blessing.

he would in any case have saved the British Army in France from the futile slaughter of May, and possibly even discouraged the French from the long and frightful follies of their Spring offensive in Artois in which they squandered nearly a quarter of a million men.

Although general staffs present the results of their labours in simple and precise assertions, these are no sure foundations upon which to make intricate plans depending upon a few days or a few divisions one way or another.

if only the Generals had not been content to fight machine-gun bullets with the breasts of gallant men, and think that that was waging war.

democracies are apt to think with their hearts rather than with their heads, and a general's business is, or should be, to use his head for planning.

I remember that we had a discussion in the war about unity of command, and that Mr. Lloyd George said, It is not a question of one general being better than another, but of one general being better than two.

One can hardly find a more perfect example of the impotence and fatuity of waging war by committee, or rather by groups of committees.

the one most awful thing in war is 'the careful man'!

Nothing leads more surely to disaster than that a military plan should be pursued with crippled steps and in a lukewarm spirit in the face of continual nagging within the executive circle.

The great impediment to action is not discussion, but the want of that knowledge which is gained by discussion preparatory to action.'—PERICLES.

People who are not prepared to do unpopular things and to defy clamour are not fit to be Ministers in times of stress.

The truth is you never know when you have to rely on Aristotle or Confucius when faced with choosing to hit a lamppost or running over a man coming from Zabar's with fresh bagels.

I was taught by Danny Simon to rely on my own judgment, and I don't like to waste precious time on what can easily become a distraction.

if you know yourself to be honorable, strong, brave, fair-minded, generous, clear-headed, or articulate, or to have any number of other good characteristics, that is the image you will project, and that image forms the basis for the decisions you make.

El que paga manda. Se lo aprendí tan bien a mi papá que hasta la fecha no he dejado de aplicarlo. Si entiendes eso, todo se hace más fácil. No es cosa de dinero, sino de inversión. El que más invierte tiene la palabra.

Hediger (1950) mantiene que «cuando dos animales se encuentran por primera vez, el que es capaz de intimidar al otro se definirá como el socialmente superior de los dos, de modo que una decisión social no siempre dependerá de una pelea; en ocasiones, bastará con un encuentro».

I don't think consensus-building politics is what I'm meant to be doing.

From then on and for the rest of his life, Paddy's motto was Solvitur ambulando: "When in doubt, walk.

There's one good thing about getting in trouble: It seems like you do it in steps. It seems like you don't just end up in trouble but that you kind of ease yourself into it. It also seems like the worse the trouble is that you get into, the more steps it takes to get there. Sort of like you're getting a bunch of little warnings on the way; sort of like if you really wanted to you could turn around.

A true teacher would never tell you what to do. But he would give you the knowledge with which you could decide what would be best for you to do.

Both anger and alcohol put people in the position where, paradoxically, they have knowledge that moves them to act but also lack the wisdom needed to act well.