Quotes About Risk

Remember from the logic of the barbell that it is necessary to first remove fragilities.

the benefits are small, and visible—and the costs very large, delayed, and hidden.

But I also buy the opposite argument that regulating street signs does not seem to reduce risks; drivers become more placid. Experiments show that alertness is weakened when one relinquishes control to the system (again, lack of overcompensation). Motorists need the stressors and tension coming from the feeling of danger to feed their attention and risk controls, rather than some external regulator—fewer pedestrians die jaywalking than using regulated crossings.

chess grandmasters usually win by not losing; people become rich by not going bust (particularly when others do);

the potential costs are much worse than the cumulative gains.

In finance, for instance, people use flimsy theories to manage their risks and put wild ideas under "rational" scrutiny.

and I wondered whether he might have stayed alive had he gone to New York instead.

the learning of life is about what to avoid.

Clearly, the quality of a decision cannot be solely judged based on its outcome

could cause a loss of business

Most of us lead or are led by lives of patterned regularity. Diurnally, surprises are relatively few. And except for economic or physical uncertainties, we neither face nor court significant degrees of risk because a fundamental drive in the vast majority of us is toward the attainment of as much security as is possible. In this sense, jazzmen, of all musicians, are our surrogates for the unpredictable, our paladins of constant change.

Do not fear death, but rather the unlived life.

Most people live and die with their music still unplayed, they never dare to try. But I tell you, If music be the food of love, play on.

Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world , individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever. (Wakefield)

Please what? the teacher thinks. Please break the law? Please put myself and the school at risk? But, no, that's not it at all. What he's really saying is: Please be a human being. With a life so full of rules and regiments, it's so easy to forget that's what they are. She knows—she sees—how often compassion takes a back seat to expediency.

Beautiful is dangerous.

What's the point of living forever if you can't take a few risks?

Preventative measures are the bane of spontaneous action," he said. "I prefer the glory of heroism amidst panic.

Flames are strange things, Jeri said. Enticing, comforting, and yet the most dangerous force there is.

I hadn't lived a real life?I'd had just a model of a life. Everything I did, everything I thought , was suspended safely by strings, too high up for anyone to damage. Zero contact, zero risk. Now those strings had been cut and I was going to die, never having had a chance to live without them.

I'm leaping off a cliff only to discover I can fly... and then realizing there's nowhere to land. Ever. That's what's going on.

This game could last for days if I keep going unconscious. Or it could be over very quickly. Lev takes a deep breath and tries not to show any more fear than he has to. Sounds exciting. I'm in.

This is how he always imagined- a dangerous place full of mystery and violent kids.

There's no telling how far down it goes," the captain says, the left side of his mustache twitching like the tail of a rat. "Fall into that unknowable abyss, and you'll be counting the days before you reach bottom.