Quotations about Risk
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
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
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
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
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, 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
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
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,
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 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
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