Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

CEOs make hard decisions; sometimes, the least worst is the right one.

I've seen how the issues that come across a president's desk are always the hard ones - the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

Pardon me if I add that I think him [President James Madison] a little too much of a book politician, and too timid in his politics, for prudence and caution are opposites of timidity.

Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.

When you're President you have to make a lot of tough decisions. You have to keep lining them up and making them.

Before going into a room, make sure you can get out again.

I think there's a danger in politics of being too risk-averse.

If I was prime minister, there would be absolutely zero risk that Brexit wouldn't happen.

Instead, it just reminded her that sometimes there were no good choices.

Oftentimes, your choices are down to two less than ideal outcomes, but you have to choose which one is the best one for the country. I personally believe he continues to struggle to articulate that.

Outstanding long-term results are produced primarily by avoiding dumb decisions, rather than by making brilliant ones.

It’s not a perfect situation. But when you have to choose between two bad options, you pick the one that saves the people you love and believe in most. You just do. Okay?

A man made for public life and authority never takes account of personalities; he only takes account of things, of their weight and their conseqences.

During the first period of our lives the greatest danger is not to take the risk. When once the risk has been taken, then the greatest danger is to risk too much. By not risking at first one turns aside and serves trivialities; in the second case, by risking too much, one turns aside to the fantastic and perhaps to presumption.

Ignore them. They don't know what it is to make a difficult decision." "You wouldn't have done it, I bet." "That is only because I have been taught to be cautious when I don't know all the information, and you have been taught that risks can produce great rewards.

You must exercise your caution in laying your plans, but be bold in carrying them out.

The step between prudence and paranoia is short and steep. Prudence wears a seat belt. Paranoia avoids cars. Prudence washes with soap. Paranoia avoids human contact. Prudence saves for old age. Paranoia hoards even trash. Prudence prepares and plans, paranoia panics. Prudence calculates the risk and takes the plunge. Paranoia never enters the water.

When you're president, you can't vote present. You have to make a decision. Sometimes it's a split second decision. You don't have time to think about it. You've got to actually decide.

It's better to stay too long than to leave too soon.

Think very carefully about what you want in life. Reckon with the risks.

You have to run risks. There are no certainties in war. There is a precipice on either side of you - a precipice of caution and a precipice of over-daring.

Politics is not a science...but an art.

In life, when you are faced with an unfortunate circumstance, there’s no book, there’s no guide, there’s no right answer on how to get to the other side. You just sort of wake up one day and you have two paths in front of you, one where you go up and one where you can fall, and choosing the path to rise is most certainly not the easy path but it’s the brave one.

you must be careful never to allow doubt to paralyze you. always take the decisions you need to take, even if you're not sure you're doing the right thing. You'll never go wrong if, when you make a decision, you keep in mind an old German proverb: 'The devil is in the detail.' Remember that proverb and you'll always be able to turn a wrong decision into a right one.