Quotes About Risk

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~ Anais Nin

In the United States, a park ranger is more likely to be assaulted in the line of duty than is any other federal officer, including those who work for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF); the Secret Service; and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). A park ranger is twelve times more likely to die on the job than is a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Now he had to decide--what was the right thing to do? Something that required courage. Something that was frightening, because the unknown was lying in wait on the other side.

The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.

Concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket...

Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.

And until you're sure there's a cage around a tiger, it's pretty dumb to dangle meat in front of it. Right?

The received wisdom is that risk increases in the recession and falls in booms. In contrast, it may be more helpful to think of risk as increasing during upswings, as financial imbalances build up, and materializing in recessions.

She had what I'd call a lemming ass - that is, an ass that you would follow right over the edge of the cliff.

He was not a man to inspire devotion. He had lost his throne in the most ignominious of ways and, once removed from Scotland, was content to allow others to risk their lives and lands on his behalf. But Wallace and Soules were not romantics. They were under no illusions as to Balliol's quality. Hard-headed and practical, they saw in Balliol a symbol of choice and therefore of freedom.

For individuals and organizations alike, a reputation is far easier to destroy than it is to build.

Uncertainty is the only certainty in this world.

Why dangerous?" said his tutee. "Dangerous because you may lose your heart," he said, standing up. "Or mind. Or reputation. Or contact lenses.

if, as seems probable, the effort [the U.S. invasion of Iraq] encounters greater resistance than its architects imagine, our way of life may find itself tested in ways that will make the Vietnam War look like a mere blip in American history. (March 2003)

risk, reward, control, and capital.

I was 18 and had taken A-levels in Woking where I grew up. But I didn't want to go to university so left sixth-form college. My father was in the building industry and he found me a job stripping concrete panels off buildings. It was dangerous work on high scaffolds, sometimes 12 hours a day, Monday to Friday, and often weekends too.

I'm doing some more dangerous stuff on a weekly basis than professional stunt men are doing.

I played 15 years of hockey, and I got more injured doing two weeks of cheer camp.

When I finished school, I took my entire life savings - $5,000 - and invested it in a business. I was young. I was inexperienced. But I was an entrepreneur, and I was proud. And in six weeks, I was broke.

Grounding airplanes to cover your butt would never have let Orville or Wilbur change the world. We would still be spending weeks to cross the Atlantic to do business in London.

My sister learned she was a carrier for a recessive disease, Bloom syndrome, late in one of her pregnancies. I remember the panicked call and the weeks of worry as she and her husband awaited his test results; if he was also a carrier, this meant their daughter had a one in four chance of being born with the disorder.

What makes the bravery of the men and women of the FBI so special is that they know exactly what they're in for. They spend weeks and weeks in an academy learning just how hard and dangerous this work is. Then they raise their right hands and take an oath and do that work anyway.

Teenagers blithely skip off to uncertain futures, while their parents sit weeping curbside in the Volvo, because the adolescent brain isn't yet formed enough to recognize and evaluate risk.

A sponge is quite simple. You weigh ingredients, mix, and put it in the oven. With pastry, you manhandle it, shape it, fold it. You have to be involved with it; there is more jeopardy, more risk. But it's like making a casserole. There's a flurry of activity to begin with; then it's about leaving it to rest.