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Quotations about Risk



It often happens that you get nothing because you don't try anything. ~Jacques Deval (1890–1972), Afin de vivre bel et bien, 1970


You can avoid most of the sorrows of life, the only requirement being that you avoid all the happiness. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


To sail on wings of unrestraint, there where there is no chart of the skies! ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912


Don't refuse to go on an occasional wild-goose chase; that is what wild geese are made for. ~Henry S. Haskins


Adventurers who dare not sail their Ships
Till Wind and Tide are fair, will make Few Trips.
~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Voyagers," A Poet's Proverbs, 1924


Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is? ~Frank Scully


I come to the forbidden edge.
I strap on the sheath of unfear and gird the strands of daring about me.
~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Songs of the Strong: XXVI," A Soul's Faring, 1921


Real happiness is worth almost any risk... ~Philip Dunne & Joseph Mankiewicz, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, 1947, spoken by the character Captain Daniel Gregg, film based on a 1945 novel by R. A. Dick (Josephine Leslie, 1898–1979)


No Man may hope Return from all he sows.
Forbear not Planting Corn for Fear of Crows.
~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Service," A Poet's Proverbs, 1924


The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1963


The man who kicks up a shindy will probably improve the morals of mankind; he will beyond any question improve his own. In short, I believe getting into hot water. I think it keeps you clean. ~G.K. Chesterton, 1906


...you have to take risks in order to be the best version of yourself. ~Elementary, "Meet Your Maker," 2018, written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe  [S6, E12, Sherlock]


What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree? ~Logan Pearsall Smith


The shore is safer... but I love to buffet the sea — I can count the bitter wrecks here in these pleasant waters, and hear the murmuring winds, but oh, I love the danger! ~Emily Dickinson, letter to Annie P. Strong, 1851


A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. ~John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928


Risk, my dear! It is as sure as a rock. ~Anonymous, What Money Can't Do, 1866


You won't improve your chances by taking too many. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1908, George Horace Lorimer, editor


Do not spend your life seeking security and then wonder why you never found happiness. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Who goes far will go without guide or map. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912


Who can hope to be safe? who sufficiently cautious?
Guard himself as he may, every moment's an ambush.
~Horace (65–8 BCE), a metrical translation into English by Lord Lytton, 1869


Shaun Murphy:  ...which means it's only moderately hazardous.
Lea:  Most good things in life are.
~The Good Doctor, "Dr. Ted," 2021, written by Patricia Carr, Sam Chanse, & Adam Scott Weissman  [S4, E16]


Yes, yes! country girl or statesman, you shall drink the bitter potion that is the penalty of success, — drink it to the very dregs. If you would escape moral and physical assassination, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing — court obscurity, for only in oblivion does safety lie. ~Elbert Hubbard, "William H. Seward," Little Journeys to the Homes of American Statesmen, 1898


Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rules on composition: it produces vigilance rather than elevation.... prudence keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy. ~Samuel Johnson, 1759


Life's greatest dangers are often found in apparently small risks. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882


You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-You-Are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a wild thing, and you're terrified somebody's going to stick you in a cage. Well, baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somaliland. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself. ~Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961, screenplay by George Axelrod, based on the novella by Truman Capote, spoken by the character Paul Varjak


Why chase a hopeless dream? Maybe for the dream, maybe for the chase, maybe to meet another hopeless dreamer. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com, 2019


I believe the risks I take are justified by the sheer love of the life I lead. ~Charles A. Lindbergh


Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome. ~Samuel Johnson


Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly. ~Robert F. Kennedy, 1966


No danger incurred, no danger repelled. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856


For — believe me — the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is — to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships into unchartered seas! ~Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), The Gay Science, "Book Four: St Januarius" (#283), translated by Josefine Nauckhoff


I hugged safety close to my chest and kissed risk full on the lips. ~Betsy Cañas Garmon, betsygarmon.com


The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet. ~Lord Chesterfield


Often we... expect and want every day to be just like today. Even though we're not satisfied with today, we settle for security instead of discovery. ~Stephen G. Scalese, The Whisper in Your Heart, 2000


At some point you must decide if you want to succeed or just be someone who was never to blame for anything going wrong. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. God Himself is not secure, having given man dominion over His works! Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. Faith alone defends. ~Helen Keller, Let Us Have Faith, 1940


Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal, age 39


One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. ~André Gide, The Counterfeiters, 1925, translated from French


Perhaps I have lived my life to excess, but know what — if I had it to do over again, I would overdo it again. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


If you are weak, dependent upon others, inclined to allow yourself to be dominated by opinion, to take root wherever you see a little soil, make for yourself a shield that will resist everything, for if you yield to your weaker nature you will not grow, you will dry up like a dead plant, and you will bear neither fruit nor flowers. The sap of your life will dissipate into the formation of a useless bark; all your actions will be as colorless as the leaves of the willow; you will have no tears to water you, but those from your own eyes, to nourish you, no heart but your own. ~Alfred de Musset, The Confession of a Child of the Century/La Confession d'un enfant du siècle, 1836, Desgenais to Octave, translated from French by Kendall Warren


If you treat the unknown as a minefield and never enter, you may avoid getting blasted but won't ever get to run along with the butterflies. ~Terri Guillemets


You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward. ~James Thurber


I also make myself do something uncomfortable every day just to stay in good standing with risk.... It's true, I easily honor the desire to retreat and I create safe places to sip tea and think. I love to hunker down and read books and write words and paint in order to suss out path. Especially when leaves are falling and the garden is mostly asleep, and the house smells like pumpkin and apple everything. But I will risk in huge ways when it comes to words that must be said and questions that must be asked. ~Betsy Cañas Garmon, betsygarmon.com





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