Decision-Making Quotes

I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it's like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.

There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs.

Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?

I appreciate my instincts, but my instincts can be dead wrong. Circumspection can give you time.

We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork, you must make a decision.

… when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an Assembly can a perfect production be expected?

The concept of loss aversion is certainly the most significant contribution of psychology to behavioral economics.

The most decisive actions of life are most often unconsidered actions.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Patience is also a form of action.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

We regret the things we don't do more than the things we do.

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.

Thinking is easy; action is difficult; to act in accordance with one’s thought is the most difficult thing in the world.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.

Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid.

No one starts a war—or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so—without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war, and how he intends to conduct it.

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.

Leadership is taking responsibility while others are making excuses.