Italo Calvino Quotes

You can have either the Resurrection or you can have Liberace. But you can't have both.

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

There is no decision that we can make that doesn't come with some sort of balance or sacrifice.

For every path you choose, there is another you must abandon, usually forever.

Choosing a path means having to miss out on others

When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil.

What's called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.

I was missing out on a lot of things that my friends were doing, but in another way, they were missing things I was doing. It was kind of a trade-off I had to make.

No matter what you do or where you are, you're going to be missing out on something.

We live in a world of competing sorrows ... to govern is to choose.

You know what I learned? Everything has a price.

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

Everything good I've ever gotten in life, I only got because I gave something else up.

it is true that nothing is gained without something being lost: everyone knows that in fulfilling oneself one necessarily sacrifices some possibilities.

You cannot eat your cake and have it.

Choice was dangerous: you had to forgo all other possibilities when you chose.

Neither way is better. / Both ways are necessary. / It is also necessary / To make a choice between them.

Choice means saying no to one thing so you can say yes to another.

Choice means giving up something you want for something else you want more.

It's great to make your own choices, but there's a price to pay. I could've made more money or been more famous. I could be the current groovy guy.

But the path you end up on means that you have to close a lot of doors, too.

You pay a price for everything in life.

To gain what is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.

There's no point in giving up something you enjoy unless you get something back that's even better, and quickly.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.