Quotes About Risk

Don't let the smallest chance slip by; you never know until you try

Herein fail not at your peril.

It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.

Dennis Hutch had stepped up into the top seat when its founder had died of a lethal overdose of brick wall, taken while under the influence of a Ferrari and a bottle of tequila.

So what do we do if we get bitten by something deadly?' I asked. He looked at me as if I were stupid. 'You die, of course. That's what deadly means.

The light works, he said, indicating the window, the gravity works, he said, dropping a pencil on the floor. Anything else we have to take our chances with.

Totally mad,' he said, 'utter nonsense. But we'll do it because it's brilliant nonsense.

He had a nasty feeling that that might be an idiotic thing to do, but he did it anyway, and sure enough it had turned out to be an idiotic thing to do. You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

Flying is learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

The particular way in which he was choosing to dice recklessly with death today was by trying to pay for a drinks bill the size of a small defence budget with an American Express card, which was not acceptable anywhere in the known Universe.

The The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

Oh, er, well the hatchway in front of us will open in a few moments and we will shoot out into deep space I expect and asphyxiate. If you take a lungful of air with you you can last for up to thirty seconds, of course.

When the girl sitting at the next table looked away for a moment, Dirk leaned over and took her coffee. He knew that he was perfectly safe doing this because she would simply not be able to believe that this had happened.

In order to fly,all one must do is simply miss the ground

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.") Major

The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

So what do we do if we get bitten by something deadly, then?" I asked. He blinked at me as if I were stupid. "Well, what do you think you do?" he said. "You die of course. That's what deadly means.

In fact, vertigo is explained by some not as the fear of falling, but as the temptation to jump!

They even laughed a little, though sympathetically, of course. They pointed to the clause in the ticket contract that said that the entities whose lifespans had originated in any of the Plural zones were advised not to travel in hyperspace and did so at their own risk. Everybody, they said, knew that. They tittered slightly and shook their heads.

but do you really think it's wise under the circumstances? I mean, here we are on the run and everything, we must have the police of half the Galaxy after us by now, and we stop to pick up hitchhikers.

Yes. I much prefer it here. So much less reputable, so much more fraught.

You certainly don't fuck about trying to ride manta rays.

The legend is this: The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.

And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before