What does this quote mean?

“The thinker has to decide, to choose; and there is always a risk.”

Choosing among plausible interpretations necessarily involves uncertainty, so sound thinking requires a cautious selection that remains open to confirmation or correction by later events.

Source note: How We Think, Chapter VIII. The sentence concerns choosing the idea or principle relevant to a perplexing situation; the next clause says the prudent thinker selects warily, subject to later confirmation or frustration.

“The better part of valour is discretion.”

Courage is balanced with judgment here: avoiding a needless danger can sometimes be wiser than performing bravery for appearance.

Source note: Act 5, Scene 4; Falstaff reframes survival as a form of judgment.

“Every action and moral choice, aims, it is thought, at some good.”

Actions and choices are intelligible because they pursue something taken to be good, even when people disagree about what the good actually is.

Source note: Nicomachean Ethics, Book I; the opening argument begins from the idea that action aims at a perceived good.

“Sweet are the uses of adversity.”

Adversity is presented as capable of yielding insight or value even when the experience itself is unwelcome.

Source note: As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1; Duke Senior reflects on what adversity can reveal while living in exile.

“First, do nothing inconsiderately, nor without a purpose.”

Deliberate action begins by knowing why an act is being done instead of moving from impulse, distraction, or social pressure.

Source note: Meditations, Book XII, section 20, George Long translation.

“The art of life is more like the wrestler’s art than the dancer’s.”

Life requires readiness for unexpected pressure, closer to maintaining balance in a contest than performing a fully choreographed sequence.

Source note: Meditations, Book VII, section 61, George Long translation; the full sentence emphasizes readiness for sudden and unexpected onsets.