Every day, we must make decisions. Some are routine. Jim O’Toole says they indicate “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.” Warren Buffett warns against habits that are “too light to notice until they are too heavy to break.” Other decisions are more challenging. Some of the most difficult, according to Friedrich Hegel, are between “good and good.”

Here are some observations that may be helpful when you have to make an especially difficult decision as a voracious pandemic expands.

Meanwhile, I wish you well in weeks and months to come.

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“The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.”   David Russell

“Once, many, many years ago, I thought I made a wrong decision. Of course, it turned out that I had been right all along. But I was wrong to have thought that I was wrong.” John Foster Dulles

“I hate to see things done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly, if it be wrong leave it incomplete.” Bernard Gilpin

“Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune? ” Elias Canetti

“Most of the things we decide are not what we know to be the best. We say yes, merely because we are driven into a corner and must say something.”  Frank Crane

“I can bring you to the door, but you have to walk through.” Jean-Paul Vadnais

“Indecision becomes a decision over time.” Anonymous

“If you’re already in a hole, it is of no use to continue digging.” Roy W. Walters

“Decision is the spark that ignites action. Until a decision is made, nothing happens…. Decision is the courageous facing of issues, knowing that if they are not faced, problems will remain forever unanswered.” Wilfred A. Peterson

“The inability to make a decision has often been passed off as patience.” Anonymous

“Shelving hard decisions is the least ethical course.” Adrian Cadbury

“Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.” Paul Tillich

“To decide is to walk facing forward with nary a crick in your neck from looking back at the crossroads.” Betsy Cañas Garmon

“An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.” Edward de Bono

“The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.” Kahlil Gibran

“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, know when to run.” From a song popularized by Kenny Rogers, composed by Don Schlitz.

“It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.” Jim Rohn

“A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.” Rita Mae Brown

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” Roy Disney

“When one bases his life on principle, 99 percent of his decisions are already made.” Anonymous

“In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.” Henry David Thoreau

“Make decisions from the heart and use your head to make it work out.” Sir Girad

“If you put off everything ’till you’re sure of it, you’ll get nothing done.” Norman Vincent Peale

“When possible make the decisions now, even if action is in the future. A reviewed decision usually is better than one reached at the last moment.” William B. Given

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