Decision-Making Quote by Marilyn Moats Kennedy

Urgency is the hidden protagonist here, not courage. The line is built like a courtroom trade-off: decisiveness versus correctness, with the verdict hinging on timing. “Boldly decisive” isn’t just an attitude; it’s a performance of leadership, the kind that signals competence to everyone watching even when the data is incomplete. The quote flatters action-takers while quietly indicting the people who equate caution with virtue.

The subtext is pragmatic and a little ruthless: being right has an expiration date. “Right too late” reframes accuracy as useless if it arrives after the window for impact closes. That’s a distinctly modern anxiety, especially in systems where delay has real costs: medicine, politics, emergency management, business. It’s also a social critique of institutional paralysis, the committees and consensus culture that can turn deliberation into a form of self-protection. “Agonize at length” isn’t neutral analysis; it’s emotional self-soothing dressed up as responsibility.

What makes the line work is its asymmetry. It doesn’t claim decisiveness is always good; it admits the risk of being wrong, then asserts that risk is preferable to the quieter failure of missed opportunity. It’s a motto for triage: when stakes are high and time is scarce, the moral calculus shifts from “What is correct?” to “What is actionable now?” The quote functions less as advice than as permission to move.