Selected risk quotes

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

3. Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.

4. The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

5. I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.

6. The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.

7. We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.

8. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.

9. To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.

10. Sometimes you don't know if you're Caesar about to cross the Rubicon or Captain Queeg cutting your own tow line.

11. Come away; poverty's catching.

12. Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might-have-been.

13. Take Courage! Whatever you decide to do, it will probably be the wrong thing.

14. My problems aren't big but it doesn't necessarily take a big problem to kill me.

15. I've learned so much from my failures that I'm thinking of having some more.

16. Sometimes the only way you can win is to stay out of the game.

17. The surest way to remain a winner is to win once, and then not play any more.

18. If you never try anything new, you'll miss many of the world's great disappointments.

19. I don't know driving in another way which isn't risky. Each one has to improve himself. Each driver has its limit. My limit is a little bit further than other's.

20. It's going to be a season with lots of accidents, and I'll risk saying that we'll be lucky if something really serious doesn't happen.

21. My biggest error? Something that is to happen yet.

22. The danger sensation is exciting. The challenge is to find new dangers.

23. Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back.

24. Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

25. You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.

26. There is a further advantage [to hydrogen bombs]: the supply of uranium in the planet is very limited, and it might be feared that it would be used up before the human race was exterminated, but now that the practically unlimited supply of hydrogen can be utilized, there is considerable reason to hope that homo sapiens may put an end to himself, to the great advantage of such less ferocious animals as may survive. But it is time to return to less cheerful topics.

27. In former days, men sold themselves to the Devil to acquire magical powers. Nowadays they acquire those powers from science, and find themselves compelled to become devils. There is no hope for the world unless power can be tamed, and brought into the service, not of this or that group of fanatical tyrants, but of the whole human race, white and yellow and black, fascist and communist and democrat; for science has made it inevitable that all must live or all must die.

28. The Smashing Pumpkins was never meant to be a small band. It was going to either be a big band, or a no band.

29. Well, me don't swim too tough so me don't go in the water too deep.

30. When you back off, it's easier to do mistakes. For me it's better to ski fast.

31. You can't talk of the dangers of snake poisoning and not mention snakes.

32. I think marriage is all about timing. Getting married is insanity; I mean, it's a risk - who knows if you're going to be together forever? But you both say, 'We're going to take this chance, in the same spirit.

33. You can't be happy that fire cooks your food and be mad it burns your fingertips.

34. The truth is always modern and there never comes a time when it is safe to give it voice.

35. They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.

36. For the love of God, folks, don't try this at home.

37. Fortune favors the audacious.

38. It requires courage to make a frontal attack on nature through the broad planes and the large lines and it is cowardly to do it by the facets and details. It is a battle.

39. Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.

40. By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

41. 'If there is a 50-50 chance that something can go wrong, then 9 times out of ten it will.'

42. A vaincre sans peril, on triomphe sans gloire.

43. In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.

44. Though love repine, and reason chafe, There came a voice without reply, - ''Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die.'

45. The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

46. When you strike at a King, you must kill him.

47. As soon as there is life there is danger.

48. If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: 'It's gonna go wrong.' Or 'She's going to hurt me.' Or,'I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . .' Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.

49. Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail - Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.

50. We often discover what WILL do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

51. 'I'd rather sink trying to be different, than stay afloat like everyone else'

52. Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.

53. Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.

54. Really, one of us ought to have the courage to call the experiment off and shoulder the responsibility for the decision, but the majority reckons that that kind of courage would be a sign of cowardice, and the first step in a retreat. They think it would mean an undignified surrender for mankind- as if there was any dignity in floundering and drowning in what we don't understand and never will...

55. 'With the physical mindset I play the game with, I expect to get hurt.'

56. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

57. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

58. Eight years involved with the nuclear industry have taught me that when nothing can possible go wrong and every avenue has been covered, then is the time to buy a house on the next continent.

59. A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all. Circumspection and devotion are a contradiction in terms.

60. I am more afraid of King Alcohol than of all the bullets of the enemy.

61. Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.

62. I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral.

63. Most men of business think 'Anyhow this system will probably last my time. It has gone on a long time, and is likely to go on still.'

64. Fate steals along with silent tread, Found oftenest in what least we dread, Frowns in the storm with angry brow, But in the sunshine strikes the blow.

65. Let the man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim. Attacking is his only secret. Dare, and the world always yields: or, if it beat you sometimes, dare again, and it will succumb.

66. The intellectual power, through words and things, Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way!

67. 'To be loved is a strength. To love is a weakness.'

68. [The world may end up] under a Sword of Damocles : on a tightrope over the abyss.

69. If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.

70. It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all to prudent.

71. The papers were always talking about the debt owed to society. According to them, it had to be paid. But that doesn't speak to the imagination. What really counted was the possibility of escape, a leap to freedom, out of the implacable ritual, a wild run for it that would give whatever chance for hope there was. Of course, hope meant being cut down on some street corner, as you ran like mad, by a random bullet. But when I really thought it through, nothing was going to allow me such a luxury. Everything was against it; I would just be caught up in the machinery again.

72. Black magic is not a myth. It is a totally unscientific and emotional form of magic, but it does get results - of an extremely temporary nature. The recoil upon those who practice it is terrific. It is like looking for an escape of gas with a lighted candle. As far as the search goes, there is little fear of failure! To practice black magic you have to violate every principle of science, decency, and intelligence. You must be obsessed with an insane idea of the importance of the petty object of your wretched and selfish desires. I have been accused of being a 'black magician.' No more foolish statement was ever made about me. I despise the thing to such an extent that I can hardly believe in the existence of people so debased and idiotic as to practice it.

73. It was a saying of Demetrius Phalereus, that 'Men having often abandoned what was visible for the sake of what was uncertain, have not got what they expected, and have lost what they had,-being unfortunate by an enigmatical sort of calamity.'

74. By being a racing driver you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing, competing to win. And the main motivation is to compete for victory, it's not to come 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th. I race to win as long as I feel it's possible. Sometimes you get it wrong? Sure, it's impossible to get it right all the time. But I race designed to win, as long as I feel I'm doing it right.

75. Accidents are unsuspected and hated, but they are part of life. When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough. You must take the compromise to win, or else nothing. That means: you race or you do not.

76. The best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might possibly put an end to the human race. It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration. Many warnings have been uttered by eminent men of science and by authorities in military strategy. None of them will say that the worst results are certain. What they do say is that these results are possible, and no one can be sure that they will not be realized. We have not yet found that the views of experts on this question depend in any degree upon their politics or prejudices. They depend only, so far as our researches have revealed, upon the extent of the particular expert's knowledge. We have found that the men who know most are the most gloomy.

77. You won't catch me driving a race car that I have built. (This remark was obviously tongue-in-cheek, as numerous photos exist of Chapman driving racing cars he built.)

78. After a few months in my parents' basement, I took an apartment near the state university, where I discovered both crystal methamphetamine and conceptual art. Either one of the these things are dangerous, but in combination they have the potential to destroy entire civilizations.

79. The subtlest change in New York is something people don't speak much about but that is in everyone's mind. The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sounds of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition. All dwellers in cities must dwell with the stubborn fact of annihilation; in New York the fact is somewhat more concentrated because of the concentration of the city itself and because, of all targets, New York has a certain clear priority. In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer who might loose the lightning, New York must hold a steady, irresistible charm.

80. He [Aeschylus] was, first and last, the born fighter, to whom the consciousness of being matched against a great adversary suffices and who can dispense with success. Life for him was an adventure, perilous indeed, but men are not made for safe havens. The fullness of life is in the hazards of life. And, at the worst, there is that in us which can turn defeat into victory.

81. We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.

82. You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10 or 12 to 1.

83. I believe global warming is grossly exaggerated as a problem. It's a real problem, but it's nothing like as serious as people are led to believe. The idea that global warming is the most important problem facing the world is total nonsense and is doing a lot of harm. It distracts people's attention from much more serious problems.

84. It is nought good a slepyng hound to wake.

85. You attain superior long-term returns through preservation of capital and home runs. I'm not better than the next trader, just quicker at admitting my mistakes and moving on to the next opportunity.

86. The easiest way to attract a crowd is to let it be known that at a given time and a given place some one is going to attempt something that in the event of failure will mean sudden death.

87. Such disloyalty in trusted servants is one of the most disheartening things that can happen to a public performer.

88. It is warm work; and this day may be the last to any of us at a moment. But mark you! I would not be elsewhere for thousands.

89. When I went home to my family in May, 1770, from the town meeting in Boston, which was the first I had ever attended, and where I had been chosen in my absence, without any solicitation, one of their representatives, I said to my wife, 'I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning, that you may prepare your mind for your fate.' She burst into tears, but instantly cried out in a transport of magnanimity, 'Well, I am willing in this cause to run all risks with you, and be ruined with you, if you are ruined.' These were times, my friend, in Boston, which tried women's souls as well as men's.

90. Only out of stir and change is born new salvation. To deny that is to deny belief in man, to turn our backs on courage! It is well, indeed, that some should live in closed studies with the paintings and the books of yesterday - such devoted students serve Art in their own way. But the fresh-air world will ever want new forms. We shall not get them without faith enough to risk the old! The good will live, the bad will die; and tomorrow only can tell us which is which!

91. There is no fire without some smoke.

92. It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.

93. The telling of jokes is an art of its own, and it always rises from some emotional threat. The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous because they are in some way truthful.

94. We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes.

95. Suicidal glory is the luxury of the irresponsible. We're not giving up. We're waiting for a better opportunity to win.

96. When the time came to leap in faith, whether you had your eyes open or closed or screamed all the way down or not made no practical difference.

97. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

98. Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig, then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun.

99. Nuclear proliferation is on the rise. Equipment, material and training were once largely inaccessible. Today, however, there is a sophisticated worldwide network that can deliver systems for producing material usable in weapons. The demand clearly exists: countries remain interested in the illicit acquisition of weapons of mass destruction. If we sit idly by, this trend will continue. Countries that perceive themselves to be vulnerable can be expected to try to redress that vulnerability - and in some cases they will pursue clandestine weapons programs. The supply network will grow, making it easier to acquire nuclear weapon expertise and materials. Eventually, inevitably, terrorists will gain access to such materials and technology, if not actual weapons. If the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction.

100. Why has this security so far eluded us? I believe it is because our security strategies have not yet caught up with the risks we are facing. The globalization that has swept away the barriers to the movement of goods, ideas and people has also swept with it barriers that confined and localized security threats.