Quotes About Choice

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

This is the lie that is at the heart of our society, the lie that encourages every form of destructive self-indulgence to flourish: for while we ascribe our conduct to pressures from without, we obey the whims that well up from within, thereby awarding ourselves carte blanche to behave as we choose. Thus we feel good about behaving badly.

There can be no greater pleasure in life," Stalin is reputed to have said, "than to choose one's enemy, inflict a terrible revenge on him, and go quietly to bed." He might have added, if he really did say this, "secure in the knowledge that one has done good." Committing evil for goodness' sake must surely rank as an even greater pleasure than Stalin's: It satisfies the inner sadist and the inner moralist at the same time.

I learned early in my life that if people were offered the opportunity of tranquility, they often reject it and choose torment instead.

but only a moment's reflection is necessary to realize that, where there is a choice of incarceration and so-called community sentencing, a reduction in the rate of recidivism is perfectly compatible with a rise, even a huge rise, in the numbers of crimes committed; and vice versa, with a rise in the rate of recidivism coincident with a fall, even a dramatic fall, in the rate of crime.

The choice for Gillray, as for all persons of good sense, was never between perfection and hell on earth, but always between better and worse.

Every American election summons the individual voter to weigh the past against the future.

If given the choice between Righteousness and Peace, I choose Righteousness.

I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice Roosevelt. (His 19-year-old daughter.) I cannot possibly do both.

If I must choose between righteousness and peace, I choose righteousness.

Why must we love where the lightning strikes, and not where we choose?

If you don't feel you have any choice in a situation, self-esteem and confidence plummet. But once you understand that you do have a choice, self-esteem will improve. You aren't a helpless victim anymore. You decide how you deal with a situation. You aren't just reacting to life; you're creating your life.

People have to make journeys, what we want is people to have alternatives in public transport so that they can make a choice about the sort of way in which they're going to travel.

It was strange. ... If she'd never gone to the Amazon, never met Ash, she would most likely have been perfectly content with Todd. She wouldn't have understood those fleeting flashes of emptiness that come upon a per¬son from time to time. Now she knew what they were: the yearning for what could have been, for the road never taken.

Leave your wife and children, never have contact with them again, and I will give you a life of luxury. He sold his soul. And he'd done it with both eyes open.

Here is the principle: If you know you have to make a difficult decision with someone, don't delay. The situation will only worsen. But please be certain you have no other alternatives.

If given a choice between life and death, most people and leaders choose death if life requires substantive changes.

You do it to yourself

Of two evils we must always choose the least.

Would you rather be stung by a thousand wasps or sleep in the pigpen? Answer one or the other! You have to answer one or the other. Grownup versions may be more sophisticated, as, Are you a Democrat or a Republican? The

Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man's own will.

Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain.

In deliberation we may hesitate; but a deliberated act must be performed swiftly.

Baseball is not necessarily an obsessive-compulsive disorder, like washing your hands 100 times a day, but it's beginning to seem that way. We're reaching the point where you can be a truly dedicated, state-of-the-art fan or you can have a life. Take your pick.