Quotes About Foresight

Plans act as a forcing function against all kinds of stupidity because they demand that important issues be resolved while there is time to consider other options. As Abraham Lincoln said, "If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I'd spend four hours sharpening the axe," which I take to mean that smart preparation minimizes work.

Be kind to your future self

That's a generous appraisal of our foresight

He installed a mirror outside his study window so he could see guests coming up the drive before they saw him, allowing him time to brace himself or to hide.

Never bring a gun to a fight where the other guy has a time-machine and tomorrow's newspapers.

The right thing at a wrong time is a wrong thing.

Most of the time I spend when I get up in the morning is trying to figure out what is going to happen.

Half the trouble in the world arises from men trying to anticipate their time and season, and the other half from their trying to prolong them.

Now that I near 80, I realize with wistful pleasure that on many occasions I was 10, 20, 40, even 50 years ahead of my time.

A good plan will therefore include alternative actions, the choice between them being left open until the passage of time indicates which is feasible and which is not.

I don't think they knew exactly where they were going with the character, but they lay those stories out ahead of time, so they had some idea where they wanted it to go.

And Clinton was like that - he saw the whole playing field. He didn't just see the event that he was at or the circumstances of that week or that month. He saw the whole playing field all the time.

By the time there is a case study about your industry, you are already too late.

Many are the things that man seeing must understand. Not seeing, how shall he know what lies in the hand of time to come?

If we operate with a belief in long sweeps of time, we build cathedrals; if we operate from fiscal quarter to fiscal quarter, we build ugly shopping malls.

Honestly, if I can plan out a few meals ahead of time, I feel much more organized.

Our fears are an amazing gift of the imagination, a kind of everyday clairvoyance, a way of glimpsing what might be the future when there's still time to influence how that future will play out.

In this [fashion] business you're living in the future a lot of the time.

To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little.

Some period of time later you look up and say, "That concern was right on the mark; it happened exactly as I thought it would." So that's been really helpful to recognize.

Yes, a genuine expert can always foretell a thing that is five hundred years away easier than he can a thing that's only five hundred seconds off.

Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did.

But, don't you know, there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight? Awkwardness and stupidity can. The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him.

God has a plan. He always does, but sometimes people forget and try to make their own, imperfect plans. People can only see a little way down the road. But He can see the whole trip.