Browse 1206 quotes about Agency.
“Life was not a predestined path. It was what you made of it. Be the heroine of it, not its victim or passive observer.”
Source: Threads of Deception: A Suddenly French Mystery
“The future does not exist today, so we have the opportunity to imagine it, shape it and navigate towards it.”
Source: Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World
“We are not helpless victims unable to make decisions - we have the power to shape our own futures.”
Source: Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World
“At every moment, we have the agency to do something different. Moving forward, by both choice and necessity, we must integrate increasingly imaginative activities.”
Source: The Definitive Guide to Thriving on Disruption: Volume III - Beta Your Life: Existence in a Disruptive World
“I claim the right to be who I want to be. Regardless of my choice, I will find those who agree and those who don't. I will gain support, and I will confront opposition, but I will stand firmly as me.
It is my choice.
It is the only real choice I have to make.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Were all beings just a thin skin of volition floating on a sea of drives and directives they could not control?”
Source: Spiderlight
“How can so many (white, male) writers narratively justify restricting the agency of their female characters on the grounds of sexism = authenticity while simultaneously writing male characters with conveniently modern values?
The habit of authors writing Sexism Without Sexists in genre novels is seemingly pathological. Women are stuffed in the fridge under cover of "authenticity" by secondary characters and villains because too many authors flinch from the "authenticity" of sexist male protagonists. Which means the yardstick for "authenticity" in such novels almost always ends up being "how much do the women suffer", instead of - as might also be the case - "how sexist are the heroes".
And this bugs me; because if authors can stretch their imaginations far enough to envisage the presence of modern-minded men in the fake Middle Ages, then why can't they stretch them that little bit further to put in modern-minded women, or modern-minded social values? It strikes me as being extremely convenient that the one universally permitted exception to this species of "authenticity" is one that makes the male heroes look noble while still mandating that the women be downtrodden and in need of rescuing.
-Comment at Staffer's Book Review 4/18/2012 to "Michael J. Sullivan on Character Agency”
“There are things we can do. It is very important to come home to ourselves and look deeply to see what we can do every day to help the situation. Taking action helps us not to drown in despair.”
Source: At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk's Life
“He was given too much agency in a fallen world.”
Source: The Conjurer
“...she thought of him as a person who did not have a normal spine, but had instead, a firm reed of goodness.”
Source: Americanah
“Be good.
See good.
Choose good.
It's a no-brainer.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Some decisions in life naturally lead to an unhappy ending, leaving you sinking by degrees in a lake of quicksand. And, unless someone reaches to pull you out, chances are you will drown in the consequences.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Capital is an abstract parasite, an insatiable vampire and zombie maker; but the living flesh it converts into dead labor is ours, and the zombies it makes are us.”
Source: Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
“The leaders we need now don't compete with machines—they use them to amplify what humans alone choose to care about.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“In the competitive frame, every AI advance diminishes human worth. In the collaborative frame though, AI handles the replicable so we can invest in the relational and transcendent.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Data finds patterns. Humans find purpose.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Speed without wisdom is not helpful in the long run. Efficiency without care can ultimately harm people. And progress without pause risks becoming regression.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“When we step into the leading role of our own
life, rather than continue to play supporting roles in others, we are energized and vitalized. Work is no longer drudgery. It becomes
fun, meaningful, productive, and often profitable.”
Source: Ignite Your Leadership: Proven Tools for Leaders to Energize Teams, Fuel Momentum and Accelerate Results
“Yes, our Father has a plan, Ciminae,” he said. “But he leaves it up to his children to accept his will. It is their agency. He cannot force his will upon them. If he did, he would cease to be God. They . . . we must choose for ourselves to accept his will with unbreakable faith in our Father. That is when the Father moves us to do his will.” (The Spirit. From Book 2, "Worlds Without End: Aftermath," coming September 1, 2012)”
“You want to think that you did or that you were supposed to but you always had a choice.”
Source: The Starless Sea
“There is an intentional disregard for human health and safety in many government agencies that are tasked with protecting it.”
“The machine can paint what things look like. I'm going to paint why looking matters.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“In a world obsessed with having the correct answers, the real competitive advantage might come from asking better questions.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Curiosity opens doors. And intentionality helps you choose which ones matter.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“The AI shows us our patterns. But patterns aren't destiny. The most human thing we can do is surprise ourselves.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“The question isn't just 'What's possible with AI?' but 'What do we want to make possible?”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Every error message is a conversation with future pain. Write accordingly.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“The pause isn't about perfection. It's about presence. Not every pause will yield profound insights. But every pause strengthens your capacity to see clearly when it matters most.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Seven minutes is long enough to interrupt what Dan Kahneman called 'System 1 thinking'—our fast, automatic, often biased responses. It's short enough that even the busiest among us can't reasonably claim we don't have time.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“In a world of algorithmic optimization, the radical act is presence without progress.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“I don't know' isn't failure but an invitation.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“AI is proof that your 'flaws'—the uncertainty, the inefficiency, the need for meaning—aren't bugs to be fixed. They're why you matter.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“The printing press didn't eliminate the need for human thought—it transformed what thinking meant. And the calculator didn't make mathematicians obsolete—it freed them to explore higher-order problems.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Beware of technologists who are so preoccupied with whether they can, they don't stop to think if they should. Intention matters.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Every poorly implemented AI system does more than fail its immediate purpose. It teaches people that AI is something to avoid, fear, or work around. It burns trust that takes years to rebuild.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Purpose-driven organizations bound by values are stronger than profit-driven organizations bound by rules.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Theory without practice isn't that useful—it's interesting, but ultimately impotent. And practice without theory is dangerous, leading to action without understanding.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“This is what distinguishes communities that thrive from those that dissolve into pleasant but ineffective social clubs: structure that enables rather than constrains, purpose that transcends individual benefit, and practices that build what regenerative momentum.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Small is beautiful. Three people who show up beats thirty who might.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Curiosity spreads through networks. It amplifies through interaction, and it deepens through collective exploration.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“The myth of individual transformation is, I fact, just that—a myth. We change through relationships.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Values require maintenance. Like any relationship, they atrophy without attention.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“There’s something powerful about speaking values aloud”
Source: Future Rising: A Journey from the Past to the Edge of Tomorrow
“Choose human flourishing over pure optimization.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“The machine didn't replace human connection … it created reasons for more of it.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“This is what intentional communities offer in the age of AI—spaces where we're present to each other and to the questions that matter, where we're not users or resources, but full humans creating meaning together.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“That's how transformation works in practice—not through grand plans but through small groups of committed people practicing new ways of being together.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Ethics, responsible innovation and intentionality aren't—or shouldn't be—just compliance checkboxes or a PR strategy. Instead, they form part of the metaphorical load-bearing structure that determines what can be built safely and beneficially—and what cannot.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“Every algorithm is a mirror, reflecting the choices of its creators and users. But care—the kind we cultivate in the pause—is a lamp. It doesn't just reflect; it illuminates.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process
“In a world of exponential change, the capacity to remain curious—to find joy and purpose in not knowing—is actually a form of wisdom.”
Source: AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process