Hard Decision Quotes: 21 Lines for Leaders Making a Tough Call, Each Traced to Its Source

In January 49 BC Julius Caesar stopped at the Rubicon, the small river that marked the edge of his province, and hesitated. Crossing with an army meant civil war. According to Suetonius he said, "Even yet we may draw back; but once cross yon little bridge, and the whole issue is with the sword," and then he crossed. That moment is the template for every hard decision since: an option you can still walk away from, a point after which you can't, and a person who has to say which. This page collects 21 hard decision quotes for leaders, each traced to the book, letter, speech or verse it comes from, and puts them in the order a tough call actually happens: sort the decision, hear the disagreement, admit what you don't know, count the cost of waiting, make the call and live with it. It ends with a four-question check, a short guide to announcing a hard decision to a team, and ten famous decision quotes that carry the wrong name.

"The die is cast": the oldest hard-decision quote

The best-known three-word quote about a decision is Caesar's, and it is older and stranger than the poster version suggests.

Take we the course which the signs of the gods and the false dealing of our foes point out. The die is cast," said he.

— Suetonius, The Life of the Deified Julius, 32 (written c. AD 121; tr. J. C. Rolfe, Loeb, 1913)

Suetonius gives the Latin as "Iacta alea est"; the familiar "alea iacta est" reverses the word order (English and Latin on LacusCurtius). Plutarch tells the same scene differently: Caesar called out the words in Greek, "Let the die be cast," like a man who "closed the eyes of reason" before jumping (Pompey 60, Perrin translation). Both versions get one thing right that the poster misses: the line is not about confidence. A die, once thrown, is out of your hands. Caesar is saying the deliberation is over and the outcome now belongs to chance and to the people on the other side of the river. That is the honest feeling after most hard calls, and it is why the line works when you announce a decision you have argued over for weeks, not when you announce a lunch menu.

What makes a decision hard?

A decision is hard when both options are defensible, so no fact will settle it for you and someone has to use judgment. Peter Drucker opened his chapter on decisions with exactly that point.

A decision is a judgment. It is a choice between alternatives. It is rarely a choice between right and wrong.

— Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive, ch. 7, "Effective Decisions," 1967

We checked the wording against scans of the 1967 Harper & Row edition (Internet Archive), where the running head "Effective Decisions" sits right above it. The sentence matters because it removes a trap. Managers who think a hard decision has a right answer wait for the data to reveal it; the data never does, because the hard part was never factual. Drucker's next sentence continues the thought ("It is at best a choice between…"), and the rest of the chapter argues that the executive's job is to choose between two partly right options with open eyes. Use the line when a team keeps asking for "one more analysis": it gives everyone permission to stop pretending the spreadsheet will decide.

Is this a one-way door? Sort the decision first

The fastest way to make a hard decision easier is to find out whether it can be undone. Jeff Bezos gave the clearest modern version of that test in his 2015 letter to Amazon shareholders.

Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible – one-way doors – and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. … But most decisions aren't like that – they are changeable, reversible – they're two-way doors.

— Jeff Bezos, Letter to Amazon Shareholders for 2015 (April 2016)

The letter, filed with the SEC (Exhibit 99.1, April 2016), names the two kinds Type 1 and Type 2 and says the second kind "can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups." His warning in the next paragraph is the useful part for managers: as organizations grow they use the slow Type 1 process on everything, and the result is "slowness, unthoughtful risk aversion, failure to experiment sufficiently." Note that the letter never says "one-way door decision"; that compact phrase is the internet's.

A year later he added a number to the idea:

Second, most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you're probably being slow.

— Jeff Bezos, Letter to Amazon Shareholders for 2016 ("Day 2" letter, April 2017)

The sentence opens with "Second," because it is the second of four tips under the heading "High-Velocity Decision Making" (SEC filing). The third tip is "disagree and commit," which we cover on our page of quotes for team meetings. The line right after the 70% rule is the one people skip: "you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correcting bad decisions." Bezos's rule only works for two-way doors. Quoting the 70% line over a one-way door, such as closing a site or letting a senior person go, misuses it.

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Hear the disagreement before you decide

A hard decision made without anyone arguing against it is usually a decision made with half the information. Drucker put that as a rule in the same chapter as his definition.

The first rule in decision-making is that one does not make a decision unless there is disagreement.

— Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive, ch. 7, 1967

He follows it with a story about Alfred P. Sloan of General Motors, who is reported to have postponed a decision his committee had agreed on unanimously, so that the members could come back with the objections nobody had raised. The point is not to manufacture conflict. A room that agrees at once has often not looked at the alternatives, and the person who would have objected tends to raise the problem after launch instead. In practice, ask one person to argue the losing option as well as they can before you close the item.

The reason a room can miss what is in front of it comes from psychology, and Daniel Kahneman's best-known line on it fits any decision meeting:

The gorilla study illustrates two important facts about our minds: we can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness.

— Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011

The "gorilla study" is the Chabris and Simons experiment in which about half of the viewers who were counting basketball passes failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene. Kahneman's point is the second half of his sentence: we do not feel the gap. That is the argument for a named devil's advocate or a written pre-mortem ("it is a year from now and this failed; why?"), both of which make a blind spot visible before the decision rather than after.

What you don't know you don't know

Hard decisions usually involve uncertainty, and the most quoted line about uncertainty was spoken at a Pentagon press briefing.

…there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know.

— Donald Rumsfeld, Department of Defense news briefing, 12 February 2002

Rumsfeld was answering a reporter who asked whether there was evidence that Iraq was willing to supply terrorists with weapons of mass destruction (archived DoD transcript). The answer was mocked at the time, and the decision it was defending is still argued over; that history is worth knowing before you put the line on a slide. As a planning tool, though, the three categories are sound and easy to use: list what you know, list the questions you know are open, and then leave room in the plan (budget, time, an exit point) for the third category. If your team is facing a crisis rather than a single call, our page on leadership quotes for uncertain times goes further.

The cost of waiting: quotes about indecision

Not deciding feels safe because nothing visible happens. These five lines, from a playwright, a psychologist, an emperor, a general and a theologian, all argue that it is a choice with its own cost.

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, / And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought

— William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3.1.91–93 (Folio text, 1623)

This is from the "To be or not to be" soliloquy (Folger Shakespeare). "Conscience" here leans toward "thinking things over," not guilt, and the speech goes on to say that great enterprises "lose the name of action." The 1604 quarto has no "of us all"; the familiar wording is the 1623 Folio's. Hamlet is the classic picture of a capable person who keeps thinking past the point where thinking helps, which makes the line a gentle way to tell a team, or yourself, that the analysis phase is over.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.

— William James, The Principles of Psychology, vol. 1, ch. IV, "Habit," 1890, pp. 121–122

James continues: "Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all" (Classics in the History of Psychology). For a manager the lesson is practical: make the small, recurring calls into rules (who approves what, which meetings are standing), so that your attention is free for the few decisions that really are hard.

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…et rien de plus difficile, et pourtant de plus précieux, que de savoir se décider." ("…and nothing is more difficult, and yet more precious, than knowing how to decide.")

— Napoleon, as recorded by Las Cases, Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, 1823 (our translation)

Quote books print this as "Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide," credited to "Napoleon, Maxims." The French original, found in scans of the Mémorial that Las Cases compiled from Napoleon's conversations on St Helena (Open Library full-text search), says "pourtant," which means "and yet," not "therefore." The context is generals who planned well and then hesitated: "là commençaient leurs indécisions," that is where their indecision began. Napoleon's point is that the skill is rare even among able people, which is a kinder thing to say to a struggling new manager than "just decide."

The best is the enemy of the good. By this I mean that a good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.

— George S. Patton Jr., War As I Knew It, "Reflections and Suggestions," entry "Don't Delay," 1947

The popular version adds a second "executed" ("a perfect plan executed next week"); the book does not have it (full text, Internet Archive). The entry goes on: "None of these things can ever be perfect, but they can be good." Patton wrote these notes after the war as rules of thumb for officers. In an office the word "violently" will raise eyebrows, so the safer way to use the idea is to quote his first sentence, which is an old proverb rather than his own.

Somewhere deep down we know that in the final analysis we do decide things and that even our decisions to let someone else decide are really our decisions, however pusillanimous.

— Harvey Cox, On Not Leaving It to the Snake, Introduction, 1967

This is the sentence behind the slogan "Not to decide is to decide," which spread on a late-1960s poster credited to Cox. A full-text search of the book (Open Library) finds his longer sentence but not the slogan, so the short form is a fair paraphrase, not a quotation. Cox, a Harvard theologian, argued that the serious failing is apathy, letting "some snake tell us what to do." The point fits delegation as well: handing a decision to a committee is still a decision, and you still own it.

Making the call

When the moment comes, the people who make the hardest calls tend to describe the decision itself very plainly. Eisenhower's own account of the go order for D-Day says almost nothing about what he said.

However, the consequences of the delay justified great risk and I quickly announced the decision to go ahead with the attack on June 6. The time was then 4.15 a.m., June 5.

— Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 1948

The famous spoken words are not on record. The National Archives' Prologue magazine (Tim Rives, "OK, We'll Go," 2014) lists about ten versions from people in the room and from Eisenhower himself, including "OK, we'll go," "Well, we'll go!" and "OK, let 'er rip"; he told it five different ways in his own drafts for Paris Match in 1964. In the memoir he notes only that "no one present disagreed" and that faces brightened as everyone left for their posts. That is a good model: once a hard decision is made, the announcement can be short. The arguing belongs before it.

Others may confine themselves to debate, discussion, and that ultimate luxury--free advice. Our responsibility is one of decision--for to govern is to choose.

— John F. Kennedy, address at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 4 July 1962

Kennedy was quoting, and the phrase is French: "Gouverner, c'est choisir" appears in the Duc de Lévis's Maximes (1808) and was made famous by Pierre Mendès France in his speech to the National Assembly on 3 June 1953 (JFK text, American Presidency Project; Lévis on French Wikiquote). Kennedy's first sentence is the useful one for a leader. Advisers can debate forever; "free advice" costs them nothing. The person in charge is the one who has to pick, and owning that is the job, which is the theme of our page on accountability quotes.

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Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

— Peter F. Drucker, as quoted in Forbes, 1962

Most sites print "Whenever"; the earliest printing that Barry Popik found, in Forbes in 1962, says "Wherever" (Popik). It is the one Drucker line on this page that comes from an interview, not a book, so we give the magazine as the source. It is also the most encouraging line here: it reminds a team that the business they work in exists because somebody once took a risk that could have gone the other way.

After the call: living with a hard decision

Most hard decisions are judged later by the story we tell about them, and the most quoted poem about choosing is really about that story.

I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence: / Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.

— Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken," Mountain Interval, 1916

Read the whole poem (Project Gutenberg) and it says the opposite of the graduation-card reading. Earlier the speaker admits that the two paths were worn "really about the same" and "both that morning equally lay." The "less traveled" claim is something he expects to tell "with a sigh" years later. Frost wrote it in 1915 as a joke for his friend Edward Thomas, who on their walks always regretted whichever path they had taken. When Thomas took it seriously, Frost wrote back that "the sigh was a mock sigh" (letter of 26 June 1915, as summarized by David Orr in The Road Not Taken, 2015). For a leader that is a useful warning. After a hard call, people (you included) will rewrite it as either brilliant or foolish. Write down at the time what you knew and why you chose, so that the review a year later judges the decision and not just the outcome.

Bible verses about decision making

Many people search for decision quotes from the Bible, and the King James text offers five that are often used in sermons and devotionals on choosing well. The wording below is the KJV as printed on Bible Gateway.

How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.

— 1 Kings 18:21 (KJV)

Elijah says this to the people of Israel at Mount Carmel, and the verse ends: "And the people answered him not a word." "Halt" means limp: the image is of someone hobbling between two paths. It is the Bible's sharpest line on indecision.

Choose you this day whom ye will serve … but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

— Joshua 24:15 (KJV)

Joshua's farewell speech at Shechem. The verse is often shortened to its last clause, but its first half is a demand for a decision, today, with the leader stating his own choice first.

I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live

— Deuteronomy 30:19 (KJV)

Moses' closing charge to Israel. The verse frames a choice whose effects run past the person choosing, "thou and thy seed," which is the right frame for any decision that will outlast you in the job.

Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

— Proverbs 15:22 (KJV)

The biblical version of Drucker's rule about disagreement. Proverbs 11:14 says the same in a harder tone: "Where no counsel is, the people fall."

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

— James 1:5 (KJV)

"Upbraideth not" means "does not scold." For a reader of faith the verse turns the loneliness of a hard decision into a request that will be met without reproach, which makes it a common choice for a card to someone facing one.

Four questions to ask before a hard call

The lines above add up to a short check you can run in a meeting. Each question comes with the quote that makes the point quickly.

If the answers are "yes, we can undo it" and "waiting costs us," decide now with the information you have. If the answers are "no" and "waiting costs little," take the time, get the counsel and decide slowly. The hardest case is "no, we can't undo it" and "waiting is expensive," and that is the case where a leader earns their pay.

How to announce a hard decision to your team

A hard decision that is badly announced gets reopened in every hallway. Three parts are enough:

1. The decision in one sentence. Put it first, with no warm-up. "We are closing the Denver office in March" is clearer than three paragraphs of context followed by the news.
2. What you weighed, including the option you rejected. Describe the losing option fairly and say why it lost. People who argued for it will accept the call more readily if they hear their case put well.
3. When and how it will be reviewed. Even a one-way door has follow-up decisions. Name the date you will look at the result and what would make you change course.

Two worked examples:

• Cancelling a project: "We're stopping Project North at the end of this sprint. We looked hard at shipping a smaller version, and it was a real option, but it would have tied up the team through Q2 for a market we no longer think is there. We'll review in June whether the research is worth reopening. Drucker has a line for this: a decision 'is rarely a choice between right and wrong.' This was a choice between two reasonable plans."
• A reversible process change: "Starting Monday, pricing exceptions under 10% no longer need my sign-off. This is a two-way door, in Jeff Bezos's phrase: if it goes badly we'll change it back at the end of the quarter."

Leave quotes out of announcements that cost people their jobs. "The die is cast" in a layoff memo reads as if the writer is admiring their own nerve. Use the plain sentence, take the questions in person, and save the quotes for the planning meeting.

Hard decision quotes with the wrong name

These lines are all over decision-quote lists. Each one either has no known source or belongs to someone else. For more lines like these, see our longer list of leadership quotes leaders never said.

How we checked these quotes

Every quote on this page was checked against a fetched copy of its source: the SEC filings of Amazon's shareholder letters, the Folger text of Hamlet, the LacusCurtius translations of Suetonius and Plutarch, the 1890 text of James's Principles, the Project Gutenberg text of Mountain Interval, the American Presidency Project for Kennedy, an archived Defense Department transcript for Rumsfeld, Bible Gateway for the KJV verses, and full-text searches of scanned editions on the Internet Archive and Open Library for Drucker, Kahneman, Patton, Eisenhower, Cox and Las Cases. Where only a secondary source was available (the Drucker Forbes line, through Barry Popik; Frost's letter, through David Orr) the citation says so. The Napoleon line is our own translation of the French, and we say that next to it. Page numbers are given only where we could see them.