Quotes & Sayings About Tough Decisions

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. — Douglas MacArthur

If we do not make tough decisions now, future Americans will have to make even tougher ones. — Virginia Foxx

The Oval Office is a place where there's been, obviously, a lot of amazing experiences over a seven-and-a-half year period. My presidency is one where I've had to make some very tough decisions. I guess some presidencies are kind of - were real smooth, there were no real big issues. Well, that's not the way mine is. — George W. Bush

Safe! All I wanted to do was keep them safe. How do you protect your brothers at eight-fucking-teen? How do you make enough money, get enough respect to do that? I wasn't smart, Eve. I'm a big, dumb fucking bastard. I couldn't even get a job as a bagger at the A&P. I wanted to make their lives worth living. That's what they'd done for me - made my life worth living. They're my family. I can't ... I just can't." Beckett pounded his chest.
"They would've been better off without me," he continued. "Blake would still be homeless, but Cole made his own damn way. But I wanted in. I wanted to belong. I was too fucking selfish to walk away. I should have walked away. But I didn't and now - " Beckett choked on a deep, angry sob. "Now, they're paying for it. All my stupid decisions. They'll die tonight. They'll both die, and I can't stop it. I can't plug it with money. I can't bring them back from the dead, even if I act tough or kill more people. — Debra Anastasia

You can never predict what kind of tough decisions are going to come in front of a President's desk. But if you can trust that they will do the right thing, and maybe the hard thing, and maybe not the popular thing. And if you really want to know how a person will operate, look at how they've lived their life. — Ann Romney

The country needs someone with experience and determination to make tough decisions. All the money aside, it is important that Greece restore its reputation. — Evangelos Venizelos

It may have been my youth that forged my heart but it is my adulthood that defines me now." ~quote by Roe'vaash in "Then'diel's HEART — K. Farrell St. Germain

Look those tough and hard decisions in the face and make them; keep making them until you are confident in what you see. — Bidemi Mark-Mordi

I like to push characters to extremes so they have to make really tough decisions and there is no life more extreme than that of an athlete. — Chris Cleave

What I have learnt in life is that,
What we are today, are not the compromises or sacrifices we made in life.
We are the product of passion in priorities we make to enrich our as well as other's life. Indeed, you are only growing and evolving in your life with your tough decisions. — Rachana Shakyawar

In sports and in business, the greatest leaders are those who make the best decisions in the most crucial of situations. They are the ones who focus their energy on turning tough decisions into winning decisions. — Don Yaeger

Experience should warn us that tough and unpopular decisions are only made under intense political pressure produced by urgent necessity. — Tom McClintock

We're on the verge of a financial collapse unless we balance the budget, and that means some really, really tough decisions. — Gary Johnson

As a mama and a grandma, I appreciate, understand and absolutely believe in the sanctity of life. But I recognize that there are those tough situations where heartbreaking decisions have to be made. — Carole Keeton

Margaret Thatcher made tough decisions. She put people out of work and she stood up to labor unions and she did a lot of things that I did not like. — Harvey Weinstein

Well there are tough decisions necessary in budgets. I agree there are tough decisions necessary to ensure the long-term health of the budget. What I don't accept and will never accept is that those decisions must be unfair as a matter of course. — Chris Bowen

If we don't make tough decisions today our children are going to have to make much, much tougher decisions tomorrow. — Paul Ryan

Being in command means making tough decisions. Not being in command means shutting up and doing what you're told.
Artemis Fowl — Eoin Colfer

In my early years of iterative development, I thought timeboxes were actually about time. What I came to realize is that timeboxes are actually about forcing tough decisions. — Jim Highsmith

Clinton took very tough decisions on the economy. — Sidney Blumenthal

Early in my career, I sometimes found it difficult to make the tough people decisions - I had to learn that. In business, you want to listen. You want to learn. You want to make sure you're not proceeding without information. But if you wait too long, you can actually hurt an organization even more. — Laura Lang

If the Senate can't perform its most basic responsibilities, I worry about how we're going to make the tough decisions and do the hard work that will be necessary to get our country on a path to fiscal solvency. — Bob Corker

Real life is not a love story. It's a series of tough decisions, disappointments and compromise. It ain't glamorous or fluffy, and it doesn't always have a happy ending. We live. And we learn. And sometimes that's the best we can hope for. — Joanne Phillips

Life is full of tough decisions, Chase. Decisions that may make a person seem horrible, when in reality that decision was the most humane thing they could have done. A person isn't horrible for having second thoughts, for realizing they've made a mistake and deciding to correct it before it's too late. What makes a person horrible is when they do nothing. When they string other people along with them through their misery when they could have let them go and find happiness elsewhere. What's horrible is seeing the light leave your eyes and taking theirs with it. — Sara Furlong Burr

In good times, people turn to Left wing parties, in bad times, they say, well, possibly Left-wing parties can't make those tough decisions ... We've got to buck that trend — Ed Miliband

The tough decisions that a president has to make in the Oval Office are in no way related to the capability of a person to do well on television. On the other hand, the capability of a person to project favorably on television enhances that person's odds of being elected so he can serve in the Oval Office. So you can't ignore the talents, one, to be very effective on television, and on the other hand, to be very effective as an operating president. — Gerald R. Ford

You win by working hard, making tough decisions and building coalitions. — John Engler

North Korean defectors often find it hard to settle down. It is not easy for somebody who's escaped a totalitarian country to live in the free world. Defectors have to rediscover who they are in a world that offers endless possibilities. Choosing where to live, what to do, even which clothes to put on in the morning is tough enough for those of us accustomed to making choices; it can be utterly paralyzing for people who've had decisions made for them by the state their entire lives. — Barbara Demick

Leadership is tested not by one's capacity to survive politically but by the ability to make tough decisions in trying times. — Ehud Olmert

You can make tough decisions that I believe voters for years have asked us to do. — Scott Walker

Petra Ral, 10 kills, 48 assists. Oluo Bozado, 39 kills, 9 assists. Eld Jinn, 14 kills, 32 assists. Gunther Schultz, 7 kills, 40 assists. "Come back home alive, and you're a full-fledged member," is the common view in the Survey Corps ... but *those people* have lived through hell again and again, producing results all the way. They've learned how to live ... When facing a titan, you never know enough. Think all you want. A lot of the time, you're going into a situation you know nothing about. So what you need is to be quick to act ... and make tough decisions in worst-case scenarios. Still, that doesn't mean they've got no heart. Even when they had their weapons pointed at you, they had strong feelings. However ... they have no regrets. — Hajime Isayama

I have voted to make tough decisions in budgetary times, I've served on two recessionary budgets, my opponent has never served on any a budget committee where there was less money to spend than the year before. — Matt Gonzalez

Leaders trust their guts. "Intuition" is one of those good words that has gotten a bad rap. For some reason, intuition has become a "soft" notion. Garbage! Intuition is the new physics. It's an Einsteinian, seven-sense, practical way to make tough decisions. Bottom line, circa 2001 to 2010: The crazier the times are, the more important it is for leaders to develop and to trust their intuition. — Tom Peters

Political journalists love graduate student intelligence, the ability to make clever allusions in seminars, and in 1999-2000 they hassled George W. Bush for not having it. They didn't realize what this book succinctly displays: that the President has something far more important-CEO intelligence, the ability to ask tough questions, garner essential information, and make discerning decisions. — Marvin Olasky

Look, in any system, you want highly ethical people who really understand issues to form policies and make tough decisions. You need all the right people in the room. But there's a general view in Washington now by many politicians that if you ever were on this side, you're conflicted for being on that side. — Jamie Dimon

My goal was to do the best job I could in governing the state of Wisconsin, in some cases making very tough decisions to have to bring our spending in line with the resources we had at the state level. — Scott McCallum

Tough times test your valor, persistence and ability to make decisions. They force you to fight for your dreams. — Paulo Coelho

And it took to "The Devil Wears Prada" to play someone tough, who had to make hard decisions, who was running an organization, and sometimes that takes making tough decisions for a certain kind of man to empathize. That's the word - empathize. Feel the story through her. And that's the first time anybody has ever said that they felt that way. — Meryl Streep

I've often heard the complaint from both Democrat and Republican voters alike that they hate the fact that politicians get into office and they - and they're fearful, they're fearful to make tough decisions because they think more about the next election than they do about the next-generation. — Scott Walker

Get rid of all that is unnecessary. Wabi-sabi means treading lightly on the planet and knowing how to appreciate whatever is encountered, no matter how trifling, whenever it is encountered. [ ... ] In other words, wabi-sabi tells us to stop our preoccupation with success
wealth, status, power, and luxury
and enjoy the unencumbered life. Obviously, leading the simple wabi-sabi life requires some effort and will and also some tough decisions. Wabi-sabi acknowledges that just as it is important to know when to make choices, it is also important to know when not to make choices: to let things be. Even at the most austere level of material existence, we still live in a world of things. Wabi-sabi is exactly about the delicate balance between the pleasure we get from things and the pleasure we get from freedom of things. — Leonard Koren

In these difficult times, when tough decisions are required, the differences between Labour and the Tories are becoming much clearer. One party believes in intervention to reduce social and economic costs and the other believes in market forces and letting things take their course. — Lucy Powell

Meetings should have a single decision-maker/owner. There must be a clear decision-maker at every point in the process, someone whose butt is on the line. A meeting between two groups of equals often doesn't result in a good outcome, because you end up compromising rather than making the best tough decisions. Include someone more senior as the decision-maker. The decision-maker should be hands on. He or she should call the meeting, ensure that the content is good, set the objectives, determine the participants, and share the agenda (if possible) at least twenty-four hours in advance. After the meeting, the decision-maker (and no one else) should summarize decisions taken and action items by email to at least every participant - as well as any others who need to know - within forty-eight hours. — Eric Schmidt

We parents are an extension of our children, not the other way around. We are their conscience until it becomes their responsibility to tell themselves what's right and necessary. We are their butlers until they are fully able to get the items they need and can clean up after themselves. We are their cheerleaders until they learn how to develop their own confidence and motivation. We are their counselors until they are able to take the lead in making the tough decisions that affect them. — Larry Tanner

You know, I think when you coach or you manage, you make decisions, and there's some that are really, really tough. — Tony La Russa

Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today's world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs. — Jack Welch

I understand everybody in this country doesn't agree with the decisions I've made. And I made some tough decisions. But people know where I stand. — George W. Bush

After all, our Constitution was intended as a popular document. It was drafted and ratified by the people. It established democratic institutions. It entrusts the people with the power to make the tough decisions. And, in most cases, it prefers the will of the people to the unchecked rule of judges. — Mike DeWine

Susan was frustrated and angry with her disease, which she survived for more than nine years. And my father became the receptacle for her vitriol. 'She screams and carries on when the going gets tough,' he wrote, 'knowing that I understand and will never reproach her, never abandon her, whatever!' He even encouraged her to use him in this manner, suspecting that once she was drained, she became more rational, placid, and cooperative regarding treatment decisions. My dad suspected that his medical expertise had prolonged her life but was even surer that he had helped her mental suffering by letting her know that he 'was always available, even for the most trivial of problems or questions. — Barron H. Lerner

The American people, in their own families, they understand that you have to do that. You have to make the tough decisions. You have to get your budget. You have got to put it in order. And they expect their elected officials and their leaders to do likewise. — Cathy McMorris Rodgers

I'll be there for ya, girl. No matter what.
Beck took a deep breath and released it slowly. He had to stay strong for her, make the tough decisions. It was best that Paul's daughter never know how he felt about her. There'd be less hurt that way, for both of them.
Just keep her safe, God. I can settle for that. — Jana Oliver

I have made the tough decisions, always with an eye toward the bottom line. Perhaps it's time America was run like a business. — Donald Trump

It really ups your production value when you have one person that you can use as your avatar through a story, but I think everyone gets their moment in time. That other couple definitely has their moment too, and they have to make some tough decisions. — Zal Batmanglij

You've got to do what's right, or what you think is right. And you've got to make tough decisions. And you've got to be willing to take on your friends when you disagree with them. — Antonio Villaraigosa

You mustn't confuse the need for effective chairmanship, which is part of the job of the boss, along with the ability to take tough decisions and to lead people. — Charles Kennedy

Life is full of tough decisions, and nothing makes them easy. But the worst ones are really your personal koans, and tormenting ambivalence is just the sense of satori rising. Try, trust, try, and trust again, and eventually you'll feel your mind change its focus to a new level of understanding. — Martha Beck

For decades we have been living lives of abundance, with little regard for our natural resources or global health. But we are now facing hard choices in our energy policy. Future generations - my children and grandchildren, along with yours - will have to live with the decisions we make today. And so it is time for us to make some tough and - hopefully - smart choices regarding our energy use and production before it is too late. — John McCain

I was obliged to take tough, painful and bold decisions to ensure a manageable tomorrow. — Nicos Anastasiades

It gives us a lot of versatility and flexibility. Looking ahead, we've got a lot of good young players coming through the system. As they make their way, we'll have some tough decisions down the road. I'm just glad to have this one bat in our lineup that can drive in 100 runs, hit 25 to 30 home runs at least, and in our ballpark, maybe more. — Tim Purpura

My job is to get people back to work and make tough decisions. I've been willing to do it. — Rick Scott

"In a time of war, the president must have the power he needs to make the tough decisions, including, if need be, the decision to grant himself even more power." — George W. Bush

There never is a good time for tough decisions. There will always be an election or something else. You have to pick courage and do it. Governance is about taking tough, even unpopular, decisions. — Jairam Ramesh

I looked at my friend, overwhelmed with confusion. Unsure of what April should do. What I should do. What a strong woman would do. In fact, the only thing that I am certain of is that there are no easy answers, and that anyone who says there are has never been in our shoes. — Emily Giffin

I am a great believer that you need passion and energy to create a truly successful business. Remember many new businesses do not make it and running a business will be a tough experience, involving long hours and many hard decisions - it helps to have that passion to keep you going. — Richard Branson

I'm not here to solve your problems. I'm here to support you in your own decisions. I'm not going to walk away, Amy. Not now, not when the going gets tough, not ever. I'm right here at your back."
"For how long?"
"For as long as you'll have me. I love you, Amy."
Staggered, she stared at him. "But you don't do love."
"I never said that. I said love hasn't worked out for me. But all it takes is the right one. You're the right one."
No one had ever said such a thing to her before, and it made her heart swell hard against her ribcage. "I love you, Matt. So much."
He smiled like she'd just given him the best gift he'd ever had. She settled against his good side, and they stared up at the star-laden sky. "I knew I'd find something on this journey," she said. "I wasn't sure what, but I knew it'd be something special. — Jill Shalvis

Working together during the past three years, we have confounded the skeptics and the cynics. We've shown that here in Virginia, Democrats and Republicans can come together, put politics aside, and make tough decisions when times demand it. — Mark Warner

If you make the tough decisions, people will hate you today. But they will thank you for generations. — Meryl Streep

You have to be really strong in the music industry, and I'm naturally very timid. That was really hard for me. You have to be tough. You have to make decisions and be a businesswoman. — Rebecca Ferguson

Have a picture in mind of the kind of career you want, the kind of writer you want to be. This will help you make tough decisions when you reach crossroads - choosing an agent, deciding to accept deals. — Carrie Vaughn

That's why I made decisions; they were tough decisions but we shouldn't feel bad at all - don't look back with any regrets, that's how I made decisions as governor. — Scott McCallum

You must avoid the investigation trap. You can't postpone tough decisions by studying them to death. — Percy Barnevik

Tough management is a way to approach work. It is a practical, reasonable, and organized way to get to decisions more easily, make the numbers on a consistent basis, have those around you understand where you stand, and increase the business. — Chuck Martin

I want the Iraqis to understand that we are with them and that they have to make tough decisions, and we'll help them make those tough decisions for this country, for this democracy to survive. And they've made some tough decisions. — George W. Bush

I wanted to come to Washington, D.C. and help be a transformative President. And I think history, when they look back, will say this is a fellow who knew how to make decisions, and made some tough ones, stood by them, wasn't driven by the latest opinion poll, but was driven by some core principles from which he would not deviate. — George W. Bush

If you believe that hard work pays off, then you work hard; if you think it's hard to get ahead even when you try, then why try at all? Similarly, when people do fail, this mind-set allows them to look outward. I once ran into an old acquaintance at a Middletown bar who told me that he had recently quit his job because he was sick of waking up early. I later saw him complaining on Facebook about the "Obama economy" and how it had affected his life. I don't doubt that the Obama economy has affected many, but this man is assuredly not among them. His status in life is directly attributable to the choices he's made, and his life will improve only through better decisions. But for him to make better choices, he needs to live in an environment that forces him to ask tough questions about himself. There is a cultural movement in the white working class to blame problems on society or the government, and that movement gains adherents by the day. — J.D. Vance

No, what's troubling is the gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics
the ease with which we are distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our seeming inability to build a working concensus to tackle any big problem. — Barack Obama

I don't want to say that the poor are inherently cognitively diminished, but at the end of the day of making difficult, tough decisions, it's very hard to have the energy to think about things with the right mindset. — Dan Ariely

Heroes inspire us for many reasons: they make tough decisions, they keep going and they get done what matters. But there's another reason we love our heroes. Inside us all, we know we have the power to become one ourselves. — Oliver

When I get to the White House, there will be no hesitation from me to make the tough decisions that need to be made because I've been doing it for the last 13 years as a former federal prosecutor and now as the governor of New Jersey. — Chris Christie

A little light on the RPG elements but heavy on action, 'Mass Effect 2' was the game that created a world of characters that I actually cared about. When it came down to making those tough decisions during the final mission, I actually had to put the controller down and think about my choices. — Rob Manuel

If we make the tough decisions now, we will be one year ahead of 80 percent of the states in the race to economic growth. If we fail to act, we will fall even further behind ... by going first, we can become first. — Chris Christie

Asking someone out on a date is a simple task that frequently becomes a terrifying conundrum of fear, self-doubt, and anxiety. It's full of tough decisions: How do I ask? In person? Phone call? Text? What do I say? Could this person be the person I end up spending the rest of my life with? What if this is the only person for me? What if I fuck it all up with the wrong message? Though technology has added a few new, modern quirks to this dilemma, asking a new person to go on a romantic outing has never been easy. It means declaring your attraction to someone and putting yourself out there in a huge way, while risking the brutal possibility of rejection - or, — Aziz Ansari