Neal Stephenson Quotes

Saying 'yes' to one thing means saying 'no' to another. That's why decisions can be hard sometimes.

Starting off, all options are always open, but as soon as you choose something, you inevitably limit yourself. If you go for B, A is out.

You have to make choices always. It's about the omission of something for the sake of another.

Sometimes you do have to accept your second or third choice in order to avoid an outcome you consider to be even worse.

When you make something you are always offering some choices and denying others.

Never take away anything if you have nothing better to offer

Life is like a giant smorgasbord of more delicious alternatives than you can ever hope to taste. So you have to reject having some things you want in order to get other things you want more.

I have to take decisions—not back hunches.

Sometimes you have to give up one good in order to get another good.

In politics, you have to balance these things: what is good for the country, what is available, and what is possible.

You can't have your kayak and heat it.

It stinks to give up a good player. But if you think that way, you'll never make any trades. You have to focus on what you're getting back.

Choice is a form of compromise, no? So why choose if you can have both?

If you start with a compromise, you live with a compromise for a long time.

Sometimes you have to park things you're not happy with, because there are more important things to be done.

Economic policy is like business - it's all about compromise.

You know, you don't get to survive that long without making some compromises.

Instead of doing the best thing, we sometimes have to settle for the rightest thing.

Sacrifice really means giving up something good for something better.

When you put emphasis on compromise rather than on principle, you end up with 2/3 of the principles being implemented.

We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.

You just have to choose which wrong choice feels the least wrong.

Sometimes you have to lose a piece to win a game.

This procedure [selecting the simplest law], however, has no logical justification but only a psychological one.

Choosing a path means having to miss out on others