Choices Quotes

“People who are too optimistic seem annoying. This is an unfortunate misinterpretation of what an optimist really is.

An optimist is neither naive, nor blind to the facts, nor in denial of grim reality. An optimist believes in the optimal usage of all options available, no matter how limited. As such, an optimist always sees the big picture. How else to keep track of all that’s out there? An optimist is simply a proactive realist.

An idealist focuses only on the best aspects of all things (sometimes in detriment to reality); an optimist strives to find an effective solution. A pessimist sees limited or no choices in dark times; an optimist makes choices.

When bobbing for apples, an idealist endlessly reaches for the best apple, a pessimist settles for the first one within reach, while an optimist drains the barrel, fishes out all the apples and makes pie.

Annoying? Yes. But, oh-so tasty!”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“The only real conflict you will ever have in your life won’t be with others, but with yourself.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“The comfort zone is a psychological state in which one feels familiar, safe, at ease, and secure.

If you always do what is easy and choose the path of least resistance, you never step outside your comfort zone. Great things don’t come from comfort zones.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

“Unrequited love is the only emotion that allows sane people to taste the “life sentence” of someone with bipolar disorder. The longer they hang onto a lost cause the more unstable they look to everyone else. They contradict their own belief systems and statements, by circling the drain with two competing emotions—love and hate.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“No one has free will until they are an adult, and by then the choices that were made for them, have already set them on a course that gives limited freedom in the choices to be made.”
― J.D. Stroube, Caged in Darkness

“What if you were wrong? What if everything you ever believed was a lie? What if you missed your opportunity because you didn't know your worth? What if you settled on familiar, but God was trying to give you something better? What if you decided not to go backwards, but forward? What if doing what you have never done before was the answer to everything that didn't make sense? What if the answer wasn't to be found in words, but in action? What if you found the courage to do what you really wanted to do and doing it changed your whole life?”
― Shannon L. Alder

“When you let go of control and commit yourself to happiness, it is so easy to offer compassion and forgiveness. This propels you from the past, into the present. People that are negative, spend so much time trying to control situations and blame others for their problems. Committing yourself to staying positive is a daily mantra that states, “I have control over how I plan to react, feel, think and believe in the present. No one guides the tone of my life, except me!”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Maybe you had to be dying to finally get to do what you wanted.

I fidgeted around with the puzzle pieces for a while longer, but I wasn't lucky. Nothing seemed to fit without a whole lot of work.

Then I had this thought: What if it was enough to realize that you would die someday, that none of this would go on forever? Would that be enough?”
― Carol Rifka Brunt, Tell the Wolves I'm Home

“Your strength will be found when you stop struggling with yourself, instead of thinking everyone is a struggle worth overcoming. Every obstacle in life is a lesson that teaches us, not others.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“The people that truly love us in life don't fight for us to remain a doormat for others.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“It's coming, a battle between Starclan and The Dark Forest and every warrior will be called upon to fight.”
― Erin Hunter

“Trust is not a gasoline-soaked blanket that succumbs to the matches of betrayal, never able to be used for its warmth again; it’s a tapestry that wears thin in places, but can be patched over if you have the right materials, circumstances, and patience to repair it. If you don’t, you’re always the one who feels the coldest when winter comes.”
― A.J. Darkholme, Rise of the Morningstar

“We are mathematical equations where your life is the sum of all choices you've made until now. The good news is you can change the equation so that you start making a difference in your life.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

“You can enjoy anything if you make up your mind to.”
― Joyce Meyer

“If I do not know the will of my Father, and what He requires of me in a certain transaction, if I ask Him to give me wisdom concerning any requirement in my life, or in regard to my own course, or that of my friends, my family, my children, or those that I preside over, and get no answer from Him, and then do the very best that my judgement will teach me, He is bound to own and honor that transaction, and He will do so to all intents and purposes.”
― Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 3

“Not even I can see all ends, but I have been in this world long enough to know that a choice is not choice and breeds slow ills, even were it done for the highest reasons.”
― Alison Croggon, The Riddle

“Conformity begins the moment you ignore how you feel for acceptance.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Most of the time, I do not want to die. But I would like to have the means of death within my grasp. I want to feel the luxury of choice, to know the answer to “How do I bear this?” need not always be “Endure.”
― Anna Lyndsey, Girl in the Dark

“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof.”
― Shannon Alder

“It is so simple, yet so hard for some people to do. If you want someone out of your life then you and only “you” must tell him or her to leave. This can only be done by you. Otherwise, your silence shouts, “I am undecided.” When other people get involved it sends mixed signals. If only more people would be so bold, hearts would not linger so long.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“{Calpurnia)"My mother…she’s desperate for a daughter she can dress like a porcelain doll. Sadly, I shall never be such a child. How I long for my sister to come out and distract the countess from my person."

He joined her on the bench, asking, "How old is your sister?"

"Eight," she said, mournfully.

"Ah. Not ideal."

"An understatement." She looked up at the star-filled sky. "No, I shall be long on the shelf by the time she makes her debut."

"What makes you so certain you’re shelf-bound?"

She cast him a sidelong glance. "While I appreciate your chivalry, my lord, your feigned ignorance insults us both." When he failed to reply, she stared down at her hands, and replied, "My choices are rather limited."

"How so?"

"I seem able to have my pick of the impoverished, the aged, and the deadly dull.”
― Sarah MacLean, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake

“You always have a choice. Making choices even when they scare you because you know it's the right thing to do - that's bravery.”
― Aisha Saeed, Amal Unbound

“Gratitude was never meant to be an excuse for giving up on the obstacles God has put before you. Some of the most magical things he can bring us require faith and a lot of planning.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“And having once chosen, never to seek to return to the crossroads of that decision-for even if one chooses wrongly, the choice cannot be unmade.”
― Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Chosen

“There were people out there who might live or die because of me, futures good or bad might be realized because of my choices.
What right did I even have to be the one making them?”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Inheritance Games

“Where will you go, when the clock strikes twelve?
What will you do, when you face yourself?
How will you live, knowing what you’ve done?
How will you die, if your soul’s already gone?
—Excerpt of monologue from Compasia & Eratosthenes, as performed by Willem Denbury”
― Marie Lu, The Midnight Star

“Your future can be changed by one decision. One good thing can offset a mountain of bad. But you need to choose.”
― Jennifer Probst, The Marriage Merger

“Just because you can make a choice, doesn’t mean you should. Some things are better left alone.”
― Laura Burks, Altered

“But I like my big Afro. I also liked when my hair was longer and relaxed. I’m happy to have choices. They’re mine to make”
― Nicola Yoon, The Sun Is Also a Star

“I truly wanted to live a life in which I could make my own choices, independent of the 'duties' of my birth and position. It was only when fate granted that to me that I realized the cost of it. I could set aside my responsibilities to others and live my life as I please only when I also severed my ties to them. I could not have it both ways.”
― Robin Hobb, Golden Fool