quotations about choice
A victim of collision on the open sea
Nobody ever said that life was free
Sank, swam, go down with the ship
But use your freedom of choice
DEVO
"Freedom of Choice"
Imagine a captain of a ship the moment a shift of direction must be made; then he may be able to say: I can do either this or that. But if he is not a mediocre captain he will also be aware that during all this the ship is ploughing ahead with its ordinary velocity, and thus there is but a single moment when it is inconsequential whether he does this or does that. So also with a person--if he forgets to take into account the velocity--there eventually comes a moment where it is no longer a matter of an Either/Or, not because he has chosen, but because he has refrained from it, which also can be expressed by saying: Because others have chosen for him-or because he has lost himself.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
Either/Or
How could a choice be called free when its consequences are unknown at the time of our choosing?
KENNETH BURKE
Towards a Better Life
To choose, is to will one thing before another; and to will, is to bend our souls to the having or doing of that which they see to be good.
RICHARD HOOKER
Ecclesiastical Polity
When in doubt of what is right, consult your pillow overnight.
MEXICAN PROVERB
There are many roads to the same place.
LITTLE JOHN
"The Enemy of My Enemy", Robin Hood
We all imagine ourselves the agents of our destiny, capable of determining our own fate. But have we truly any choice in when we rise, or when we fall, or does a force larger than ourselves bid us our direction? Is it evolution that takes us by the hand, does science point our way, or is it God who intervenes keeping us safe?
MOHINDER SURESH
"Chapter Two 'Don't Look Back'", Heroes
Now I must live with the consequences of the choice I made. And I will not call it the wrong choice. That would be foolish and pointless. That choice led me to everything that has happened since, including this very moment, and the choices I make today or tomorrow or next week will lead me to the next and next present moments in my life. It is all a journey ... I have come to understand that that is what life is all about--a journey and the courage and energy always to take the next step and the next without judgement about what was right and what was wrong.
MARY BALOGH
Simply Love
Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the face of alternatives by means of volitional choice.
AYN RAND
Atlas Shrugged
There's no liberty like the freedom of having our own choice, whether we will live to the world, or to ourselves.
L'ESTRANGE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN
Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters
Of harmes two the less is for to chose.
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
Troilus and Criseyde