On Risk

‘Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.’
— Ray Bradbury
‘I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk.’
— Joyce Brothers
‘Revolutions are not made with rosewater.’
— Edward Robert Bullwer-Lytton
‘Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.’
— T. S. Eliot
‘There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure—all your life.’
— John W. Gardner
‘One of the reasons mature people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.’
— John W. Gardner
‘There are one hundred men seeking security to one able man who is willing to risk his fortune.’
— J. Paul Getty
‘Great deeds are usually wrought at great risk.’
— Herodotus
‘Risk-taking is the essence of innovation.’
— Herman Kahn
‘The trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.’
— Erica Jong
‘We must have the courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk, and to act.’
— Maxwell Maltz
‘Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.’
— George S. Patton
‘If you ask me, taking on risk and being more daring is a real important part of creativity.’
— Debbie Meier
‘Since I reached the conclusion that the essence of the creative person is being in love with what one is doing, I have had a growing awareness that this characteristic makes possible all the other personality characteristics of the creative person: independence of thought and judgment, honesty, perseverance, curiosity, willingness to take risks and the like.’
— Paul Torrance
‘If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.’
— Neil Simon