Creative risk taking is essential to success in any goal where the stakes are high. Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.
—Gary Ryan Blair
We may by our excessive prudence squeeze out of the life we are guarding so anxiously all the adventurous quality that makes it worth living.
—Randolph Bourne (1886–1918) American Journalist, Social Critic
I’ve found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
One of the reasons mature people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Activist
You must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best and still don’t win, at least you can be satisfied that you’ve tried. If you don’t accept failure as a possibility, you don’t set high goals, and you don’t branch out, you don’t try—you don’t take the risk.
—Rosalynn Carter (1927–2023) American First Lady, Mental Health Advocate
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves; they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
—Anonymous
Creative people who can’t help but explore other mental territories are at greater risk, just as someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk than someone who just walks along a village lane.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.
—John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet
Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
—William Congreve (1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet
The human soul has need of security and also of risk. The fear of violence or of hunger or of any other extreme evil is a sickness of the soul. The boredom produced by a complete absence of risk is also a sickness of the soul.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The “sure thing” boat never gets far from shore.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable … we must be content to creep along the ground, and can never soar.
—John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet
To live differently, to love differently, to think differently, or to try to. Is the danger of beauty so great that it is better to live without it (the standard model)? Or to fall into her arms fire to fire? There is no discovery without risk and what you risk reveals what you value.
—Jeanette Winterson (b.1959) English Novelist, Journalist
Revolutionaries don’t get job security.
—Ruby Dee (1922–2014) American Actor
Have courage and a little willingness to venture and be defeated.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
If you play it safe in life, you’ve decided that you don’t want to grow anymore.
—Shirley Hufstedler (1925–2016) American Lawyer, Jurist
It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.
—Elizabeth Kenny (1880–1952) Australian Polio Treatment Pioneer
No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes, because that’s where the fruit is.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
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.
—Ray Bradbury (b.1920) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
That’s the risk you take if you change: that people you’ve been involved with won’t like the new you. But other people who do will come along.
—Lisa Alther (b.1944) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
God grants us an uncommon life to the degree we surrender our common one.
—Max Lucado (b.1955) American Author, Minister, Speaker
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
—John Augustus Shedd (1858–1931) American Author
Often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is an element of success.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.
—Alan Alda (b.1936) American Actor, TV Personality, Screenwriter
Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall.
—Tobias Smollett (1721–71) Scottish Poet, Novelist
And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to Blossom.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.
—David Lloyd George (1863–1945) British Liberal Statesman
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Leave a Reply