Choice Quotes

"We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm–yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine." ~ A Room With A View by E. M. Forster There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark. ~ The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better. ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell There's small choice in rotten apples. ~ The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely - or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. ~ Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde "When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." ~ The Virginian by Owen Wister Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves that necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded. ~ Elsie Venner by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. "I say that the strongest principle of growth lies in human choice." ~ Daniel Deronda by George Eliot "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it - there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." ~ A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice. ~ Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray