It is always thus, impelled by a state of mind which is destined not to last, that we make our irrevocable decisions.

All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.

Ce n'est jamais qu'à cause d'un état d'esprit qui n'est pas destiné à durer qu'on prend des résolutions définitives.

Sometimes I worry we've already made our decisions and have no hope of undoing them.

It is always during a passing state of mind that we make lasting resolutions.

Decisions are made by men. Men are fallible; at their best their works do not last long. Even the best decision has a high probability of being wrong. Even the most effective one eventually becomes obsolete.

Sometimes you make up your mind about something without knowing why, and your decision persists by the power of inertia. Every year it gets harder to change.

“We make decisions every moment of our lives. They may be simple ones such as what food to eat or more profound ones such as careers and choice of spouses. Many of our decisions are not based on conscious thought – they are spur-of-the-moment actions – and are influenced by a range of factors including time, emotions and our environment

Psychologists call this “decision fatigue”: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decisions deteriorates.

Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.

Everything begins with a decision. Then, we have to manage that decision for the rest of your life.

It is alarming to consider how many major life decisions we take primarily in order to minimise present-moment emotional discomfort.

Decisions like to present themselves as irreversible, like a one-way door. But most deciding points are two-way. Don’t get bogged down by decisions. You can usually back up if needed.

And I told him that a man's life is always dealing with permanence - that the most dangerous kind of irresponsibility is to think of your doings as temporary. That, anyhow, is what I've tried to keep before myself. What you do on the earth, the earth makes permanent.