Choices Have Consequences Quotes & Sayings

Private choices are not private; they all have public consequences ... Our society is the sum total of what millions of individuals do in their private lives. That sum total of private behavior has worldwide public consequences of enormous magnitude. There are no completely private choices. — James E. Faust

Make amends to those you've hurt, and forgive anyone who has wounded you. If He does, then obey Him immediately. But then move on. Don't continue to beat yourself up over something that God has forgiven. True, you may still have to live with consequences related to your choices. But the Father doesn't want you to live with unresolved guilt, shame, or regret. Seek Him and be free. — Charles F. Stanley

The essence of tragedy is time, or rather the lack of it. There is no problem in any Greek tragedy that could not have been solved if there had been enough time, but there is never enough. Decisions, choices have to be made in a moment, there is no time to think and weigh the consequences; and, since even tragic heroes are fallible - especially fallible, perhaps - the decisions are wrong. It is easy for us to see what should have been done, but would we have been able to see in time? That is the question that you should always ask in reading any Greek tragedy. — Mortimer J. Adler

We can learn from history how past generations thought and acted, how they responded to the demands of their time and how they solved their problems. We can learn by analogy, not by example, for our circumstances will always be different than theirs were. The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events. — Gerda Lerner

In this life we have to make many choices. Some are very important choices. Some are not. Many of our choices are between good and evil. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our choices. Making perfect choices all of the time is not possible. It just doesn't happen. But it is possible to make good choices we can live with and grow from. — James E. Faust

Choices have consequences. — Scott Sigler

The point is, we all come to forks in the road, and we all make our choices and live with them, for good or ill..[spoilers left out] ... You came to a fork in the road, and you made the best choice you could at the time, under the circumstances you were faced with and using the information you had. You have nothing to beat yourself up over. -Tony Marino — Karen Robards

I have lived under the threat of death for a year now. And because of that, I have made choices. Listen to me. I alone should suffer the consequences of those choices, no one else. And those consequences, they're coming. No more prolonging the inevitable. — Walter White

We all have choices. It's whether or not we want to face the consequences of our choices. — Courtney Lane

Our culture is not unacquainted with the idea of food as a spiritually loaded commodity. We're just particular about which spiritual arguments we'll accept as valid for declining certain foods. Generally unacceptable reasons: environmental destruction, energy waste, the poisoning of workers. Acceptable: it's prohibited by a holy text. Set down a platter of country ham in front of a rabbi, an imam, and a Buddhist monk, and you may have just conjured three different visions of damnation. Guests with high blood pressure may add a fourth. Is it such a stretch, then, to make moral choices about food based on the global consequences of its production and transport? — Barbara Kingsolver

Who you are today is the outcome of the choices you have made in the past. Choices that you will make today, will shape your future. — Vishwas Chavan

Life is a long road with lots of junctions and every time you chose to go one way, you may just have easily have gone the other. We don't make choices so much as choices are made like a new fashion we slip into without realising. — Chloe Thurlow

Your choices have psychological consequences. The way you choose to deal with reality, truth, facts - your choice to honor or dishonor your own perceptions - registers in your mind, for good or for bad, and either confirms and strengthens your self-esteem or undermines and weakens it. — Nathaniel Branden

Sometimes it takes asking others for input to find out you have to ultimately look within yourself for the answers to the questions only you know the truth about ... we choose the information we share. So, the person giving feedback is limited in view and their perspective will only keep your view of the situation distorted. — C. Nzingha Smith

Life's journey does not take place down an easy roadway, as some might imagine. It takes place inside a giant house with a million doorways. Every day of our lives we are faced with decisions to make, doorways to walk through. It can be confusing at times, like walking through a carnival maze. Some decisions we make are big, some small, but they all have consequences.. — K. Martin Beckner

Agency is the power to think, choose, and act for ourselves. It comes with endless opportunities, accompanied by responsibility and consequences. It is a blessing and a burden. Using this gift of agency wisely is critical today because never in the world's history have God's children been so blessed or so blatantly confronted with so many choices. — Sharon G. Larsen

You can't blame anyone else ... You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices. He knew this. That's why he deserted us like we deserted those civilians. He saw the road ahead, a steep, treacherous mountain road. We'd all have to hike that road, each of us dragging the boulder of what we'd done behind us. He couldn't do it. He couldn't shoulder the weight. - Philip Adler — Max Brooks

doesn't matter if we don't mean to do the things we do. It doesn't matter if it was an accident or a mistake. It doesn't even matter if we think this is all up to fate. Because regardless of our destiny, we still have to answer for our actions. We make choices, big and small, every day of our lives, and those choices have consequences. We have to face those consequences head-on, for better or worse. We don't get to erase them just by saying we didn't mean to. Fate or not, our lives are still the results of our choices. I'm starting to think that when we don't own them, we don't own ourselves. — Taylor Jenkins Reid

In stories, everything has to have clear consequences and everything has to focus to the end. Everything at the end will give meaning to everything that precedes. In my own life, the consequences of the choices I've made aren't always very clear. The most beautiful things are sometimes not totally truthful, and the end will not give more meaning to everything that precedes. — Jaco Van Dormael

I knew I had a choice. Either let you die and have the world blanketed with evil, or save you and make one dark moment for my best friend while the world continues to grow with light. — K. Weikel

What I want
is for you
to build a bridge.
A bridge that
connects these
two parts of my
life so I don't
have to choose
one or the other
I don't want to choose
Because the thing about
choices?
You get something
while you lose something else.
If you choose wrong
you risk losing
everything. — Lisa Schroeder

But grownups were always in a turmoil, every possible action muddied over by thoughts of the consequences, by self-doubt, by selfimage, by feelings of love and responsibility. Every possible choice seemed to have drawbacks, and sometimes he didn't understand why the drawbacks were drawbacks. It was very hard. — Stephen King

We are intelligent and compassionate creatures and we can make choices. We can fortify our hearts in goodness and do the right things. Or we can turn our heads the other way and pretend again that bad things are not happening. That they will disappear because they have nothing to do with us, because we are not accountable. Well, this is also our choice. But in that case, I am afraid, this world will be lost for us. — Bernard Jan

our actions have infinite consequences; we have limitless choices, if we open our mind to them. Thus, a shift in imagination brings about a dramatic shift in identity, meaning, value, assumptions and aspirations. — Devdutt Pattanaik

We live today in a world in which nobody believes choices should have consequences. But may I tell you the great secret that our culture seeks to deny? You cannot escape the consequences of your choices. Time runs in only one direction. — Stephen L. Carter

I'm not forcing you to do anything. You need to make your own damn decisions . And I'm not playing this game where we ignore reality and pretend to have a normal conversation for a few hours. You need to face reality and stop turning life into a movie. I'm not a puppet in your show. This is real life and you're always trying to ignore it for some cheap fantasy version where no problems exist. That's not noble of you, okay? You're not strong. You're a weak person like the rest of us. You've just learned to excel at avoiding issues. But there are issues . Life has so many freaking issues and if you can't force your own self to face life and make decisions without someone telling you what the hell to do, you're just going to end up another chess piece moved around by others. — Marilyn Grey

What I wanted to preserve was the turbulent gasp in his voice which lingered with me for days afterward and told me that, if I could have him like this in my dreams every night of my life, I'd stake my entire life on dreams and be done with the rest. (p. 109) — Andre Aciman

All choices have consequences,' she said []. 'That doesn't mean we're not free to make them. It's one of the perplexities of the human condition — Ingrid Black

From the point in life when a man/woman is responsible for his/her choices, he/she starts to live a story brought to life by the dreams that have been consciously or subconsciously conceived. — Ufuoma Apoki

Sometimes I think if we didn't have these problems the whole world would stop spinning on her axis, we'd all stop spinning on our axises, axes, or whatever you want to call them, and then we'd have to settle into the nasty business of finding a way to be happy. — Daniel Clausen

You need your freedom. You need to be able to do what you want to do as a journalist, as a person who's speaking for other women as you speak for yourself, and you make a choice. You have to be tough enough to take the consequences of that choice. — Anne Roiphe

Our choices have eternal consequences. We can merit and we can sin; we are agents in the story of our salvation. God is not a script writer who will automatically guarantee a happy ending to every life story. God is, however, more eager to embrace us in love and to save us than we ourselves are eager to be saved. We can count on God's mercy; but his mercy does not destroy our freedom. — Francis George

... the extent to which a society focuses on the needs of its lowest common denominator is the extent to which that society'll be mired in mediocrity. Whereas, if we would aim the bulk of our support at the brightest, most talented, most virtuous instead, then they would have the wherewithal to solve a lot of our problems, to uplift the whole culture, enlighten it or something, so that eventually there wouldn't be so many losers and weaklings impeding evolution and dragging the whole species down ... . Martyrs ... just perpetuate human misery by catering to it ... . Individuals have to take responsibility for their own lives and accept the consequences of their choices. — Tom Robbins

Multi-sensory perception is also the ability to see meaning in everyday experiences ... You have non-physical guides and teachers. You access them through your intuition. You hear them 'so to speak' through your insights, inspirations, and clarity. Non-physical teachers cannot control you. You must always decide for yourself how you will use your energy, what you will create. They will assist you to see your choices and the consequences of each. They will guide you to the full scope and depth of your power. How you use your power is up to you. — Gary Zukav

It's a choice that you make and there's consequences. It's something you have to own. — Suzy Welch

Growing up means curbing appetites, shifting from "me" to "we," understanding private choices have social consequences and public outcomes. — Jen Hatmaker

We have, as a nation, made choices that by all reasonable expectations should have put us in harm's way. There is little doubt that we continue to make choices that are likely to make the danger even greater. And yet, by dint of an accident of geography and economics, we have so far been spared the worst consequences of our actions. And even as those consequences begin to take hold in other places, here, in the parts of America where most of us live, at least for the moment, we can hear the winds roaring over our heads like that coal train, but somehow the worst of the danger still seems removed. What is our responsibility? (164) — Seamus McGraw

How did we get here? I've asked myself that question many times over the past several days. It's so easy to get caught up in the chaos of our wants, desires, and forgets that there are consequences to each of our choices. I sit with my best warriors realizing the path that we are on and have no idea how to jump off. I ask myself again, how did we get here? I know the answer, but I am not ready to face my own selfishness." ~ Ainsel, King of the Pixies — Quinn Loftis

Everyone has different challenges, different needs and strengths. Choices have consequences, but I now think that, even in the pits and traps, the Lord can make a way through. — Kristen Heitzmann

The message was, the choices you make can have bad consequences. Everyone has the power of choice. Just like this kid had the power of choice to steal my car. — Bill Vaughan

Don't think so. We all make our choices, and those choices have consequences. — Kami Garcia

We have to face those consequences head-on, for better or worse. We don't get to erase them just by saying we didn't mean to. Fate or not, our lives are still the results of our choices. I'm starting to think that when we don't own them, we don't own ourselves. Mark — Taylor Jenkins Reid

Until now, human organization could only be based upon something negative which could not be conquered: SCARCITY, and something false: PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY... No wonder instead of producing stability, it produced the exact opposite.
The current human organization based upon dealing with the consequences of scarcity and being considered responsible for our individual characteristics which we could never have chosen (our nature, our nurture, our "soul", and all the choices they engender), will always lead to an irrational, hence unstable human organization causing perpetual conflicts, which is no organization at all.

Today, we have the luxury to initiate a rational self-organization based upon two positives:
-our HUMAN CONSENSUS; our common desires shared by all, and
-the SCIENTIFIC PROJECT to achieve them. — Haroutioun Bochnakian

Nobody knows what horrors I have saved the world from 'cuz people can't see what never happened. All evil flows from independence, and independence is your choice. If I were to simply revoke all the choices of independence, the world as you know it would cease to exist and love would have no meaning. This world is not a playground where I keep all my children free from evil. Evil is the chaos of this age that you brought to me, but it will not have the final say. Now it touches everyone that I love, those who follow me and those who don't. If I take away the consequences of people's choices, I destroy the possibilities of love. Love that is forced is no love at all. — Wm. Paul Young

From a gameplay standpoint, I've said for years that hero, fiction, and tone have nothing to do with the idea that choices have consequences. And that's really what I'm interested in. I care about you showing how clever and creative you are. — Warren Spector

The faith-less choices tend to come easier for most of us. They occur when we react quickly out of our emotions and basically "do what comes naturally." And more often than not, those choices have negative consequences that hurt not only us but also everyone with whom we come in contact. Faith-filled choices are harder to make. They occur when we react not out of our emotions but out of a Spirit-led heart and mind. And faith-filled choices have good consequences that bless not only us but also those around us. — Wendy Blight

Now I must live with the consequences of the choice I made. And I will not call it the wrong choice. That would be foolish and pointless. That choice led me to everything that has happened since, including this very moment, and the choices I make today or tomorrow or next week will lead me to the next and next present moments in my life. It is all a journey, Miss Jewell. I have come to understand that that is what life is all about-a journey and the courage and energy always to take the next step and the next without judgement about what was right and what was wrong. — Mary Balogh

This is the first generation to know that the choices we're making have ultimate consequences. It's a time when you either choose life or you choose death ... Going along with the current order means that you're choosing death. — Frances Moore Lappe

You must be wondering how anyone could choose the left path and sacrifice their children. But it's not that simple, my dear, because when you decide to take the second path you never allow yourself to see reality as it is, without excuses. You tell yourself that if you don't pursue your own happiness, they'll suffer too; that you have a right to be happy and you only get one life; that it'll be better for them, they're young, they'll get over it. But the truth is, you make a choice and there is always a price to pay. — Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

Many have thought it unfair that all of us should suffer the consequences of their offense. Instead, we can have a much more charitable attitude toward Adam and Eve when we realize that it is not that they initiated a situation that was not already there; it is that they failed to achieve a solution to that situation that was in their reach. Their choices resulted in their failure to acquire relief on our behalf. Their failure meant that we are doomed to death and a disordered world full of sin. These are profoundly significant consequences for what was a serious offense. In contrast, Christ was able to achieve the desired result where Adam and Eve failed. We are all doomed to die because when they sinned we lost access to the tree of life. We are therefore subject to death because of sin. Christ succeeded and actually provided the remedy to sin and death. — John H. Walton

The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences, and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. — Gerda Lerner

If you should choose to look at those files, you will have to live with the consequences of your choices while, at the same time, being mindful that these choices will not only effect you, but will also infect, sorry, I intended to say effect, our entire family. — Donna K. Childree

In too many instances we have settled for a world of our own shaping that is shaping up to be in terrible shape. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

The choices you make are no different from the chances you take because both have consequences. — Bianca McCormick-Johnson

You can choose how you want to live. You are free to choose the actions, but not the results. You are free to have your kicks, but not to avoid the kickbacks. You are free to make choices, but not to avoid the consequences. — David Jeremiah

You can't blame anyone else, ... , no one but yourself. You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices. — Max Brooks

There are many teachers who could ruin you. Before you know it you could be a pale copy of this teacher or that teacher. You have to evolve on your own. — Berenice Abbott

There is some history that I want not to have happened. I resist the consequences of being Nemesis. — Wallace Stegner

You made a choice - a single choice.
How neat to think you may have opened the door to a wondrous future without knowing. — Richelle E. Goodrich

To take the choice of another ... to forget their concrete reality, to abstract them, to forget that you are a node in a matrix, that actions have consequences. We must not take the choice of another being. What is community but a means to ... for all we individuals to have ... our choices. — China Mieville

And what nags me about this is that the source of my anxiety was exactly what Kierkegaard says the source of anxiety is, and what he praised in direct proportion to the volume any person possesses: possibility. The awareness that life is a series of choices any one of which could be either aggrandizing or disastrous. That this happens to be true I have no trouble signing on to. Any who has lived past the age of ten knows that even piddling actions can wind up having big consequences, and that even when you are super-conscious of your behaviors you can't know how things are going to turn out in the short- or the long-run. That's the drama of it all. On the one hand, your very existence means you can and will change things in your life and others. On the other hand, you aren't God, so everything is always going to be drenched in uncertainty and doubt. — Daniel Smith

Freedom's never been free, there's always been a price to be paid, but people have forgotten; they're handing their freedom, their lives, over like well behaved puppets on a string ... slavery is returning by choice. — L.M. Fields

The choices we make can have lasting consequences. — Joan Bauer

Indeed, many of life's most fun and pleasurable choices come with potential dangers. It's important for my son to grow up recognizing that what might appear exciting or inviting at first glance could also have eventual negative consequences. — Karen Salmansohn

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime. — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Sometimes, the choices we make have devastating consequences — Jeanette Vaughan

Nothing is predetermined for us, and yet all our possible choices are threads in the vast weave of things, so that we have free will even though the consequences of our will are predictable. — Dean Koontz

There was a small part of me that was still childish, stubborn in her hope, thinking I could somehow have everything.

...That I could be all the versions of me, stacked inside one another, and find someone who would want them all. But that's childhood. Before you realize that every step is a choice. That something must be given up for something to be gained. Everything on a scale, a weighing of desires, an ordering of which you want more--and what you'd be willing to give for it. — Megan Miranda

While we are free to choose, once we have made those choices, we are tied to the consequences of those choices. — Russell M. Nelson

Life is like a game where you seek to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of achieving your goals. You get better at this game through practice. The game consists of a series of choices that have consequences. You can't stop the problems and choices from coming at you, so it's better to learn how to deal with them. — Ray Dalio

Another parent's different approach raises the possibility that you've made a mistake with your child. We simply can't tolerate that because we fear that any mistake, no matter how minor, could have devastating consequences. So we proclaim the superiority of our own choices. We've lost sight of the fact that people have preferences. — Ayelet Waldman

You make choices that are good and sound, but the gods have other plans for you. — Lisa See

We have choice," she insisted. "This is it. We don't get to choose our choices, Gwain, we just get to make the ones we're given ... — Dianna Hardy

We're all in charge of our own lives - and we have to live with the consequences of the choices we make. Those — Richelle Mead

It turns out the simplest choices have been far more important in the long run than I ever imagined. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Choices always have Consequences — M.J. Moore

You have a choice. A life of lonely regret or happiness with some pain along the way.
You choose. — Melissa Nathan

Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles. — David Suzuki

I have always hesitated to give advice, for how can one advise another how to act unless one knows that other as well as one knows himself? Heaven knows. I know little enough of myself: I know nothing of others. We can only guess at the thoughts and emotions of our neighbours. Each one of us is a prisoner in a solitary tower and he communicates with the other prisoners, who form mankind, by conventional signs that have not quite the same meaning for them as for himself. — W. Somerset Maugham

Whatever thoughts you have in the end moment of night will affect your next morning and whatever thoughts you have in the beginning of your day will affect your entire day. Think wisely. Then again it is your choice — Bella Meraki

Being good or being evil is not something that is inherent in our nature over which we have no control, rather we define ourselves by the choices we make, moment by moment, situation by situation. All it takes is an act of will to be the best that we can be. — Laurence Overmire

There is an "offense" to the Gospel no matter how graciously we present it. It includes the message that God, not humanity, is the ultimate judge of right and wrong, and that the choices we make here have eternal consequences. — Philip Yancey

If I have the means, I have the responsibility to employ them. — Terry Brooks

I learned about choices and consequences and responsibility. I learned that we all have choices, even when we don't recognize them, and that those choices have consequences, not just for ourselves, but for others. We must assume responsibility for those consequences. — John Sheridan

We experience him both as an unwanted presence reminding us that our thoughts, emotions, and choices have lasting consequences, as well as a radiant light transforming us gradually, painfully, into the creatures he wants us to be. — Wesley Hill

It occurred to me that when a person chooses certain behaviors, they have complete, 100% control over their choices. But once the behavior is chosen, therein lies the extent of the effects of that choice. One has 0% control over what happens to them or to their body as a result of that choice. You can choose how you respond to the consequences, but control is relinquished. Choose carefully! — Mary L. Page

Superheroes are works of fiction - created by individuals to hold up humanity's finest attributes and remind us that the choices we make in life have profound consequences. They also embody some of the qualities we aspire to, and as such, we can learn a great deal from them. — Anonymous

Effective life management isn't about finding more time to fill; it's about recognizing you don't have to do anything you do not choose to do. Hiding a choice behind a "have to" is irresponsible. Everything filling the white space in your life is there because you chose to put it there. We always have the power to say, "No." We just need to be ready to live with the consequences. — Joe Jordan

Everything in my life suddenly shifted into focus. It was like time froze and I was given a dazzling moment to comprehend the difference between that moment and the one before it. No one made choices for me. I made them. If I took no risks in the choices I'd made, it was because I didn't have the courage to take them or didn't want to live with the consequences. I didn't want to risk disappointment myself. It had been safer to defer than to strike our on my own. — Susan Meissner

The future is an ever-shifting maze of possibilities until it becomes the present. The future I have shown you tonight is not yet fixed. But it is more likely to become so with the passing of every day because nothing is being done to turn it aside. If you would change it, do as I have told you. — Terry Brooks

Taking the things people do wrong seriously is part of taking them seriously. It's part of letting their actions have weight. It's part of letting their actions be actions rather than just indifferent shopping choices; of letting their lives tell a life-story, with consequences, and losses, and gains, rather than just being a flurry of events. It's part of letting them be real enough to be worth loving, rather than just attractive or glamorous or pretty or charismatic or cool. — Francis Spufford

God asks for trust," Eve declared. "I was wrong to turn." "But why didn't God stop you? Why did God let you turn your face away?" "Lilly, I have learned that God has more respect for me than I do for myself, that God submits to the choices I make, that my ability to say no and turn my face away is essential for Love to be Love. Adonai has never hidden His face from me, nor has He kept from me the consequences of my choosing. That is why many of my sons and my daughters curse the face and name of God. But God refuses to be like what we have become and take power and dominion. He has the audacity to consent and even submit to all our choosing. Then He joins us in the darkness we create because of all our turning. — Wm. Paul Young

If there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, don't snuff it out, don't be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than we'd want to be forgotten is no better. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything - what a waste! (p. 225) — Andre Aciman

There are moments when you stand on the brink of a new experience and understand that you have no choice about it. Either you walk into the experience or you turn away from it, but you know that no matter what you choose, you will have altered your life in a permanent way. Either way, there will be consequences. — Dennis Covington

You think your power is what shapes the world you walk in. But that is an illusion. Your choices shape your world. You think your power will protect you from the consequences of those choices. But you are wrong. You create your own rewards. There is a Judge. There is Justice in this world. And one day you will receive what you have earned. Choose carefully. — Jim Butcher

We've all done things we wish we hadn't, made choices we didn't even know were choices at that time. but that doesn't mean we have to stick by them. In life, you find out who you are gradually, not all at once. You made a bad choice, okay? But you can still get out of it. — Jane Stanton Hitchcock

Have you ever been torn between two impossibilities and knew in your heart that no matter which way you went or which path you chose that you were doomed to unhappiness? — Maya Banks

I can make whatever choices I want in my life, and I will live with the consequences of those choices. But if I want to live a life close to my deepest desires, I have to risk knowing who I really am and have always been. Knowing this, then I can choose. — Oriah Mountain Dreamer

You have agency, and you are free to choose. But there is actually no free agency. Agency has its price. You have to pay the consequences of your choices. — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Over the years I have realized it's not the people who come into your life but the choices they force you to make gives the direction to your life. — Amit Abraham