Quotes About Foresight

The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it.

If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.

If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run-and often in the short one-the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.

Whereas a novice makes moves until he gets checkmated (proof), a Grand Master realizes 20 moves in advance that it's futile to continue playing (conceptualizing).

Prediction is difficult, especially the future.

Science fiction seldom attempts to predict the future. More often than not, it tries to prevent the future.

If only I knew now what I know in the future.

The best prophet of the future is our past.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

The only way to predict the future is to create it.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.

If you ask me to cut down a tree I'll spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.

GeleceÄŸi tahmin etmek imkans?zd?r. Ama ÅŸimdiki zaman? çok iyi bilirsen geleceÄŸi kontrol edebilirsin.

Un plan prost executat la timp este mai bun decât un plan genial pus în practic? prea târziu.

It is thrifty to prepare today for wants of tomorrow.

Look before you leap.

It was as if a vital evolutionary advantage had been bestowed centuries ago on those members of the species who lived in a state of concern about what was to happen next. These ancestors might have failed to savour their experiences appropriately, but they had at least survived and shaped the character of their descendants, while their more focused siblings, at one with the moment and with the place where they stood, had met violent ends on the horns of unforeseen bison.

Thus, in this world of brief scenes from the future, few risks are taken. Those who have seen the future do not need to take risks, and those who have not yet seen the future wait for their visions without taking risks.

Indeed, what sense is there in continuing the present when one has seen the future?

There is no point in imagining that if one had been there, one could have prevented a thing that had happened only because it had not been prevented

Imitating recent successes is a game that everybody knows how to play. But seeing the next big thing before anybody else sees it is far more valuable... It means being a little bit wrong at just the right time.

To see things as they really are, you must imagine them for what they might be.

If they didn't take you seriously, they would never see you coming.

The arrogance of ignorance.