Decision Quotes - Page 18

• There are two options for any society: total prohibition as in a totalitarian state, or total license. Both avoid the ardours of decision. Both have the attraction of certainty. The difficult option is to decide where the line should be drawn and this, surely, is the responsiblity of any civilized and democratic country.

  P. D. James

  Country, Two, Lines

  P. D. James (2011). “Time to Be in Earnest”, p.104, Faber & Faber

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• I see little hope for a peaceful world until men are excluded from the realm of foreign policy altogether and all decisions concerning international relations are reserved for women, preferably married ones.

  W. H. Auden

  Men, Peaceful, World

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• It's got to be the best intellectual exercise out there. You're seeing through new situations every ten minutes. In the stock market you don't base your decisions on what the market is doing, but on what you think is rational. Bridge is about weighing gain/loss ratios. You're doing calculations all the time.

  Warren Buffett

  Loss, Exercise, Thinking

  "The Warren Buffett Portfolio: Mastering the Power of the Focus Investment Strategy". Book by Robert G. Hagstrom (p. 112), 2000.

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• There is a force that controls all your decisions. It influences how you think and feel every moment you're alive. It determines what you will do and what you will not do. It determines how you feel about anything that occurs in your life. That force is your beliefs.

  Tony Robbins

  Thinking, Alive, How You Feel

  Tony Robbins (2012). “Notes From A Friend: A Quick and Simple Guide to Taking Charge of Your Life”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

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• Don't labor forever over the question of how or if you can do it. Studies have shown that the most successful people make decisions rapidly because they are clear on their values and what they really want for their lives.

  Tony Robbins

  Successful, People, Forever

  Tony Robbins (2012). “Awaken The Giant Within”, p.56, Simon and Schuster

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• When you know what's most important to you, making a decision is quite simple.

  Tony Robbins

  Simple, Priorities, Important

  Tony Robbins (2012). “Awaken The Giant Within”, p.400, Simon and Schuster

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• Americans, more than most people, believe that history is the result of individual decisions to implement conscious intentions. For Americans, more than most people, history has been that.... This sense of openness, of possibility and autonomy, has been a national asset as precious as the topsoil of the Middle West. But like topsoil, it is subject to erosion; it requires tending. And it is not bad for Americans to come to terms with the fact that for them too, history is a story of inertia and the unforeseen.

  George Will

  Believe, Erosion, People

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• Make the decision that you'll no longer use excuses to keep you from what you know is in your best interest. Today, act on something you've always avoided and explained away with a convenient excuse. Make a phone call you've been putting off, write a letter to a friend, put on a pair of walking shoes and go for a stroll, clean out your closet—do something you've been justifying not doing with excuses.

  Wayne Dyer

  Friends, Writing, Phones

  FaceBook post by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer from Jul 17, 2012

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• While the apostles of the new so-called "behavioral" theory present ample evidence of how often human beings make irrational financial decisions, it remains to be seen whether these decisions lead to predictable errors that create systematic mispricings upon which rational investors can readily and economically capitalize.

  John C. Bogle

  Errors, Investing, Systematic

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• Even if this advice to portfolio decision makers to drop dead is good advice, it obviously is not counsel that will be eagerly followed. Few people will commit suicide without a push. And fewer still will pay good money to be told to do what is against human nature and self-interest to do.

  Paul Samuelson

  Suicide, Self, People

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• Markets are efficient, but there are different dimensions of risk and those lead to different dimensions of expected returns. That's what people should be concerned with in their investment decisions and not with whether they can pick stocks, pick winners and losers among the various managers delivering basically the same product.

  Eugene Fama

  People, Risk, Different

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• The defensive (or passive) investor will place chief emphasis on the avoidance of serious mistakes or losses. His second aim will be freedom from effort, annoyance, and the need for making frequent decisions.

  Benjamin Graham

  Mistake, Loss, Effort

  Benjamin Graham (2009). “The Intelligent Investor, Rev. Ed”, p.6, Harper Collins

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• The beauty of periodic rebalancing is that it forces you to base your investing decisions on a simple, objective standard.

  Benjamin Graham

  Simple, Investing, Force

  Benjamin Graham (1965). “The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel”, p.73, Prabhat Prakashan

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• Only in the exceptional case, where the integrity and competence of the advisers have been thoroughly demonstrated, should the investor act upon the advice of others without understanding and approving the decision made.

  Benjamin Graham

  Integrity, Advice, Understanding

  Benjamin Graham (1959). “The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel”

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• I have not said your values are wrong. But neither are they right. They are simply judgments. Assessments. Decisions. For the most part, they are decisions made not by you, but by someone else. Your parents, perhaps. Your religion. Your teachers, historians, politicians.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Inspirational, Teacher, Religious

  Neale Donald Walsch (2005). “The Complete Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue”, p.69, Penguin

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• There's nothing "wrong" with anything. "Wrong" is a relative term, indicating the opposite of that which you call "right." Yet, what is "right"? Can you be truly objective in these matters? Or are "right" and "wrong" simply descriptions overlaid on events and circumstances by you, out of your decision about them?

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Inspirational, Religious, Opposites

  Neale Donald Walsch (2005). “The Complete Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue”, p.144, Penguin

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• Thinking is hard. Making value judgments is difficult. It places you at pure creation, because there are so many times you'll have to say, "I don't know. I just don't know." Yet still you'll have to decide. And so you'll have to choose. You'll have to make an arbitrary choice. Such a choice - a decision coming from no previous personal knowledge - is called pure creation. And the individual is aware, deeply aware, that in the making of such decisions is the Self created.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Inspirational, Religious, Thinking

  "Conversations with God". Book by Neale Donald Walsch, December 1998.

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• A man who is influenced by the polls or is afraid to make decisions which make him unpopular is not a man to represent the welfare of the country.

  Harry S. Truman

  Leadership, Country, Men

  Harry S. Truman (2014). “1946-52: Years of Trial and Hope”, p.243, New Word City

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• ... but the important thing is that when you do find one where you really do know what you are doing, you must buy in quantity.... Charlie and I have made a dozen or so very big decisions relative to net worth, although not as big as they should have been. And in each of those, we've known that we were almost certain to be right going in.

  Warren Buffett

  Should Have, Important, Doing You

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• As Graham, Dodd and Buffett have all said, you should always remember that you don't have to swing at every pitch. You can wait for opportunities that fit your criteria and if you don't find them, patiently wait. Deciding not to panic is still a decision.

  Seth Klarman

  Opportunity, Swings, Waiting

  "Channeling Graham and Dodd: A Conversation with Seth Klarman". Value Investor Insight Interview, seekingalpha.com. October 29, 2008.

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• I had made what I believe was one of the more valuable decisions of my business life. This was to confine all efforts solely to making major gains in the long-run.

  Philip Arthur Fisher

  Running, Believe, Long

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• Making a decision to sell is the most difficult thing we do.

  Walter Schloss

  Investing, Difficult, Sells

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• Have the courage of your convictions once you have made a decision.

  Walter Schloss

  Investing, Conviction, Made

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• The decision [to create a theme park called "EuroWorld"] was made by the EU countries in response to their collective realization that no one in Europe has had an innovative idea in well over a century.

  Jonah Goldberg

  Country, Europe, Ideas

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• President Bush said he was 'troubled' by gay people getting married in San Francisco. He said on important issues like this the people should make the decision, not judges. Unless of course we're choosing a president, then he prefers judges.

  Jay Leno

  Gay, San Francisco, Issues

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