50 Hesitation Quotes For Mindful Learning

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published August 5, 2023

Learn something new about yourself with our hesitation quotes.

Do you hesitate in life?

Have you ever asked yourself why you hesitate?

Find out more about how and why we fail to act with our hesitation quotes below

What is hesitation?

Hesitation is a period of inactivity that occurs before we make an attempt at something.

It is the process of pausing in the course of making a decision or taking an action.

Most people hesitate about things they are uncertain about.

Check out these interesting ways to overcome hesitation:

Address your fear
Train yourself to think, then act
Understand why you are hesitating

Why do we hesitate?

There are over eight billion people on planet Earth.

Each of us finds unique ways to hesitate.

However, hesitation usually manifests in two ways: Hesitation out of fear and hesitation out of fact.

Hesitation out of fear is when we choose to say or do something because we do not wish to be judged, harassed, or shamed by others.

When we hesitate out of fact, we intentionally avoid something because we do not prefer it or it makes us uncomfortable.

Hesitation is a powerful teacher

Our body is constantly communicating with us.

Our feelings give us insight into our condition and overall health.

Hesitation is a powerful form of communication that is designed to stop us or throw us into our excitement immediately.

When we experience hesitation, it can be our intelligence kicking in to remind us to stay safe and avoid necessary risks.

For example, you are walking, and you come to a bridge that looks old and faulty.

You may naturally hesitate to cross the bridge and find another means of travel.

This natural healthy hesitation was handed down to us from generations of ancestors who experienced trial and error.

This form of learned hesitation saves lives.

What about unhealthy hesitation?

Hesitation can be a potent teacher by showing us what happens when we do not apply wisdom.

Unhealthy hesitation can be confused with healthy delay.

When a person is presented with an opportunity but does not apply themselves to it because of fear of embarrassment or attention, this is the toxic form of hesitation that stops us.

The opportunity goes away, and all that remains is regret.

If you want to learn more, check out our hesitation quotes below.

Short hesitation quotes for immediate action

We are going to start with these apt quotes about hesitation.

1. “Do not allow yourself hesitation.” — Corey Taylor

2. “Live for each second without hesitation.” — Elton John

3. “Determine why you hesitate to take action.” — John C. Maxwell

4. “No good is ever done in this world by hesitation.” — Thomas Huxley

5. “Find the source of your hesitation, and address it.” — John C. Maxwell

6. “Even if you have to go through hell, go without hesitation.” — Albert Einstein

7. “Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age.” — Ernest Hemingway

8. “Enthusiasm is a volcano on whose top never grows the grass of hesitation.” — Khalil Gibran

9. “Hesitation only enlarges, magnifies the fear. Take action promptly. Be decisive.” — David J. Schwartz

10. “Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true.” — Patrick Swayze

The best hesitation quotes for making up your mind

These quotes can help you find peace of mind and avoid hesitation.

11. “Hesitation will get you killed.” — Laurell K. Hamilton

12. “You hesitate how far you should go.” — Charles Loring Brace

13. “Start working on whatever you hesitate.” — David Wong

14. “Haste is productive of injury, and so is too much hesitation.” — Ovid

15. “There is a line between a definite maybe and an indefinite yes.” — Mason Cooley

16. “Don’t expect ambiguities, hesitations or palace intrigues from me.” — Anibal Cavaco Silva

17. “When men no longer fear God, they transgress His laws without hesitation.” — Aiden Wilson Tozer

18. “There is a destination but no way there; what we refer to as way is hesitation.” — Franz Kafka

19. “I have no hesitation doing children’s movies. Zero. And I don’t even have kids.” — David Cross

20. “When you make it to the end, You will realize the hesitation was a waste of time.” — David Wong

Famous hesitation quotes for proving yourself right

These quotes remind us why self-confidence is key to preventing hesitation.

21. “No fear, no hesitation, no surprise, no doubt” — Miyamoto Musashi

22. “I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.” — John Ruskin

23. “Be like a train; concentrate on your road and go with no hesitation!” — Mehmet Murat Ildan

24. “Move forward with no second-guessing, no guilt trips, no hesitation.” — Neale Donald Walsch

25. “When the heart is flooded with love, there is no room in it for fear, for doubt, for hesitation.” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh

26. “Good friends are those who care without hesitation, who remember without limitation and who love even without communication” — Philippos Syrigos

27. “Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.” — George Sand

28. “If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.” — Blaise Pascal

29. “Now I know that to conquer fear, I must always act without hesitation, and the flutters in my heart will vanish.” — Og Mandino

30. “On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions who at the dawn of victory lay down to rest, and in resting died.” — Adlai E. Stevenson

Hesitation quotes and sayings about life

Hesitation can be a powerful teacher if we learn to act.

Here are some interesting quotes about hesitation.

31. “Audacity augments courage; hesitation, fear.” — Publilius Syrus

32. “Come to God for your healing. Don’t hesitate.” — Joseph Prince

33. “Get rid of all the hesitation. It’s time for you to seize the day.” — Greyson Chance

34. “I would, without any hesitation, shoot a violent criminal again.” — Bernhard Goetz

35. “We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

36. “I use my single windup, my double windup, my triple windup, my hesitation windup, my no windup.” — Satchel Paige

37. “Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.” — William Hazlitt

38. “Well, I can get that far all right with a little hesitation. After that, I am uncertain, and I can’t manage a statistic.” — Mark Twain

39. “Man should not consider his material possession his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.” — Thomas Aquinas

40. “The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility, I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.” — John Ruskin

The top hesitation quotes for creating a flow

These quotes remind us that hesitation stops us from moving with our natural flow.

41. “We will, of course, without hesitation use art to parody, ridicule, debunk, or criticize ideologies.” — David Foster Wallace

42. “I don’t have any hesitation saying I’ve traveled more miles than any human being who ever lived. I’ve been doing it for 60 years.” — Gary Player

43. “We should seek the truth without hesitation; and, if we refuse it, we show that we value the esteem of men more than the search for truth.” — Blaise Pascal

44. “We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.” — Seneca the Younger

45. “[Greed] has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is ruthlessly ready without a moment’s hesitation to crush beauty and life.” — Rabindranath Tagore

Additional hesitation quotes

Enjoy these final quotes about hesitation.

46. “Nature seems to have no hesitation in administering to her strong doses of pain, and she can do nothing but submit passively to the regimen prescribed.” — Princess Marie Bonaparte

47. “It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful.” — Vincent Van Gogh

48. “An expectation was there, mixed in with so many other emotions; excitement, resignation, hesitation, confusion, fear that would well up then wither on the vine.” — Haruki Murakami

49. “You must stand up to the very thing that challenges you, look it in the face, get clear about your intention, order your thoughts and your life, and proceed without fear or hesitation.” — Iyanla Vanzant

50. “Nearly all our powerful men in this age of the world are unbelievers; the best of them in doubt and misery; the worst in reckless defiance; the plurality, in plodding hesitation, doing, as well as they can, what practical work lies ready to their hands.” — John Ruskin