Quotes About Consequences

Making better decisions starts with understanding this: uncertainty can work a lot of mischief.

The decision you make determines which set of outcomes are possible and how likely each of those outcomes is. But it doesn't determine which of that set of outcomes will actually happen.

If you want to pick a role model for designing a group's practical rules of engagement, you can't do better than Merton. To start, he coined the phrase "role model," along with "self-fulfilling prophecy," "reference group," "unintended consequences," and "focus group." He founded the science of sociology and was the first sociologist awarded the National Medal of Science.

For any single decision, there are different ways the future could unfold—some better, some worse. When you make a decision, the decision makes certain paths possible (even if you don't know where they lead) and others impossible. The decision you make determines which set of outcomes are possible and how likely each of those outcomes is. But it doesn't determine which of that set of outcomes will actually happen.

Because any decision determines only the set of possible outcomes (some good, some bad, some in between), this means good outcomes can result from both good and bad decisions, and bad outcomes can result from both good and bad decisions.

Job and relocation decisions are bets. Sales negotiations and contracts are bets. Buying a house is a bet. Ordering the chicken instead of the steak is a bet. Everything is a bet.

In most of our decisions, we are not betting against another person. Rather, we are betting against all the future versions of ourselves that we are not choosing. We are constantly deciding among alternative futures: one where we go to the movies, one where we go bowling, one where we stay home.

They point to numerous negative consequences of goal setting, several of which interfere with rational quitting behavior. In particular, they note the pass-fail nature of goals, their inflexibility, and how pursuing them leads to ignoring other opportunities that might be available.

The thief you must fear the most is not the one who steals mere things.

The Pilgrim Fathers landed on the shores of America and fell upon their knees. Then they fell upon the aborigines.

It's really sad looking at people like Lindsay Lohan. She's an amazing actress, but you see what happens when people know too much about your personal life. They start not being able to look at you the same way professionally. I don't want that to happen to me.

There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few.

There's so much more involved with the game than just sitting there, looking at the numbers and saying, 'OK, these are my percentages, then I'm going to do it this way,' because that one time it doesn't work could cost your team a football game, and that's the thing a head coach has to live with, not the professor.

He has committed the crime who profits by it.

I say this as an engineer: We are profoundly bad at asking ourselves how the things we build could be misused.

'White supremacist' and 'white nationalist' aren't like 'meanypants' - you can't just attach them to people you don't like without any thought to the consequences. The progressive Left has done it to ordinary Americans for decades. The result? President Trump.

Legislating morality doesn't work (see: Prohibition). It produced the Mafia.

State formation has been a brutal project, with many hideous consequences. But the results exist, and their pernicious aspects should be overcome.

The danger in promiscuity is that it's always barking at your heels.

As the manager, Ive told my players that if anyone is sin-binned for backchat to referees or officials, they will miss the next two games - with no promises that they will get back in the side.

Any promising young white man rich enough to theoretically afford a giant oil painting of himself gets to remain young and innocent forever, and none of his actions have any consequences, whether there is magic involved or not.

The government is promoting bad behavior.

The ambition and focus that propel you to success can also be your downfall.

Once you are a proper, serious law-maker, you can't break the laws you're writing.