Risk Quotes

All of life is the exercise of risk. - William Sloane Coffin





Don’t refuse to go on an occasional wild goose chase — that’s what wild geese are for. - Author Unknown


To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. - Søren Kierkegaard


I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso


When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap. - Cynthia Heimel, "Lower Manhattan Survival Tactics"


Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first. - Frederick B. Wilcox


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


Yes, risk taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking. - Tim McMahon


Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at. - Author Unknown


If you don’t take risks, you’ll have a wasted soul. - Drew Barrymore


The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all. - Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960


You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. - Wayne Gretzky


I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean. - G.K. Chesterton


What is more mortifying than to feel you’ve missed the Plum for want of courage to shake the Tree? - Logan Pearsall Smith


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





To eat an egg, you must break the shell. - Jamaican Proverb


To win you have to risk loss. - Jean-Claude Killy


The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny. - Napoleon Bonaparte


If you’re never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances. - Julia Sorel (Rosalyn Drexler), See How She Runs, 1978


Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise. - Author Unknown


Prudence keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy. - Samuel Johnson


This nation was built by men who took risks — pioneers who were not afraid of the wilderness, business men who were not afraid of failure, scientists who were not afraid of the truth, thinkers who were not afraid of progress, dreamers who were not afraid of action. - Brooks Atkinson


The more chance there is of stubbing your toe, the more chance you have of stepping into success. - Author Unknown


The healthy being craves an occasional wildness, a jolt from normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of the Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life. - Robert MacIver


Of all the people I have ever known, those who have pursued their dreams and failed have lived a much more fulfilling life than those who have put their dreams on a shelf for fear of failure. - Author Unknown


Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome. - Samuel Johnson, Rasselas, 1759




Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. - Robert F. Kennedy


It’s a shallow life that doesn’t give a person a few scars. - Garrison Keillor


Why live on the edge when you can jump off it? - Sign at Macau Tower Bungy Jump


Adventure is what happens when you just did something stupid. - Professor Bernie


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


It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. - Seneca


What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? - Robert H. Schuller


You must lose a fly to catch a trout. - George Herbert


While forbidden fruit is said to taste sweeter, it usually spoils faster. - Abigail van Buren





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





Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic. - Author Unknown


Adventure may hurt but monotony will kill you. - Author Unknown


If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being? - Aleksander Solzhenitsyn


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


Dare to be naive. - Buckminster Fuller


It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves — in finding themselves. - André Gide


Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide? - Jean-Jacques Rousseau


There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything. - Vauvenargues


One cannot refuse to eat just because there is a chance of being choked. - Chinese Proverb


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 course, 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


One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. - André Gide


Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. - James Bryant Conant





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


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





We fail more often by timidity than by over-daring. - David Grayson


Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down. - Ray Bradbury