Risk-Taking
- Accept that all of us can be hurt, that all of us can--and surely will at times--fail. I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk.--Joyce Brothers
- All my life I have gone out on a limb, but I have turned the limb into a bridge, and there is cool, clear water flowing under.--Holly Near
- And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to Blossom.--Anais Nin ("Risk" from The Diary of Anais Nin)
- Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.--Sir Cecil Beaton
- Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.--Victor Hugo
- Bravery and adventure! That's the ticket! Don't sit and gather moss. Get up, get out, do what you dream of doing, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and you don't need to made that particular mistake again, but at least you won't get old wondering what if you had.--Garrison Keillor (A Christmas Blizzard)
- Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.--Alice M. Swaim
- Courageous risks are life-giving, they help you grow, make you brave, and better than you think you are.--Joan L. Curcio
- Creative people who can't help but explore other mental territories are at greater risk, just as someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk than someone who just walks along a village lane.--R.D. Laing
- Creative risk taking is essential to success in any goal where the stakes are high. Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.--Gary Ryan Blair (Mind Munchies : A Delicious Assortment of Brain Snacks!)
- Dare to do things worthy of imprisonment if you mean to be of consequence.--Juvenal
- Devote today to something so daring even you can't believe you're doing it.--Oprah Winfrey
- Do not be too timid and squeamish... All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.--Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.--David Lloyd George
- Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back.-- George Herman (Babe) Ruth, Jr.
- During the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.--Soren Kierkegaard
- Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.--Mignon McLaughlin
- Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.--Gertrude Stein
- First ponder, then dare.--Helmuth Johannes Ludwig, Graf von Moltke
- For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze.--Richard Bode (First You Have to Row a Little Boat)
- The galleries are full of critics. They play no ball, they fight no fights. They make no mistakes because they attempt nothing. Down in the arena are the doers. They make mistakes because they try many things. The man who makes no mistakes lacks boldness and the spirit of adventure. He is the one who never tries anything. His is the brake on the wheel of progress. And yet it cannot be truly said he makes no mistakes, because his biggest mistake is the very fact that he tries nothing, does nothing, except criticize those who do things.--Gen. David M. Shoup
- God grants us an uncommon life to the degree we surrender our common one.--Max Lucado (Cure for the Common Life)
- God of deep waters and infinite riches, challenge me to go where I fear, to do what is difficult and what I thought could never be done. Push me to go to the deep waters of life and cast my net wide, for I put all my hope, trust and faith in you.--Matthew Kelly (Rediscover Lent)
- Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown.--George Shinn
- Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.--Augustus (and Julius) Hare
- Have courage and a little willingness to venture and be defeated.--Robert Frost
- He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.--Paul Tillich
- The human soul has need of security and also of risk. The fear of violence or of hunger or of any other extreme evil is a sickness of the soul. The boredom produced by a complete absence of risk is also a sickness of the soul.--Simone Weil (Selected Essays 1934-1943)
- I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.--Kurt Vonnegut
- The idea of always playing it safe, never venturing out of our comfort zone, & refusing to broaden the borders of our experience is stultifying.--M. Melberg
- If a man will begin with certainities, he shall end in doubts: but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he whall end in certainties.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.--Francis Bacon (Advancement of Learning)
- If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this.--Spencer Silver, inventor of Post-It notepads
- If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.--Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
- If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable ... we must be content to creep along the ground, and can never soar.--John Henry Cardinal Newman
- If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.--Ray Bradbury
- If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.--Jim Rohn
- If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.--Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book)
- If you don't ask "why this?" often enough, somebody will ask "why you?"--Tom Hirshfield
- If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.--Nora Roberts
- If you don't risk anything, you risk even more.--Erica Jong (How to Save Your Own Life)
- If you play it safe in life you've decided that you don't want to grow any more.--Shirley Hufstedler
- If you try to guard yourself against every unlikely danger, you'll never stretch beyond your comfort zone. Don't let the 'what-ifs' run your life. Follow your dreams and have at it.--Diane Conway (What Would You Do If You Had No Fear?)
- If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.--John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.--Anonymous
- It is the risk element which ensures security. Risk brings out the ingenuity and resourcefulness which ensure success.--Robert Rawls
- It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.--John Paul Jones
- It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.--Sister Elizabeth Kenny
- It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance.
It's the one who won't be taken, who cannot seem to give,
and the soul afraid of dyin' that never learns to live.--Manda McBroom ("The Rose")
- I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.--Brian Tracy
- Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.--Alan Alda
- Life isn't worth living unless you're willing to take some big chances and go for broke.--Eliot Wiggington
- The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure thing boat never get far from the shore.--Dale Carnegie
- The men who have done big things are those who were not afraid to attempt big things, to risk failure to gain success.--B. C. Forbes
- Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.--Philip Adams
- Necessity is the mother of taking chances.--Mark Twain
- No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.--George Eliot
- No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe.--Harry Gray
- Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.--Samuel Johnson
- Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.--Cardinal Newman
- Often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is an element of success.--Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one's better abilities or idea, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk--and to act.--Maxwell Maltz
- Often we women are risk averse. I needed the push. Now, more than ever, young women need more seasoned women to provide that encouragement, to take a risk, to go for it. Once a glass ceiling is broken, it stays broken.--–Jennifer Grahnolm
- One can give nothing whatever without giving oneself--that is to say, risking oneself. If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving.--James Baldwin
- One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.--John W. Gardner
- One who sits between two chairs may easily fall down.--Russian Proverb
- Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.--T. S. Eliot
- Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.--Walter Anderson
- Our whole way of life today is dedicated to the removal of risk. Cradle to grave we are supported, insulated, and isolated from the risks of life - and if we fall, our government stands ready with Bandaids of every size.--Shirley Temple Black
- People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.--Peter Drucker
- A person determined never to be wrong won't likely accomplish much.--Ken Wisdom
- Please know I am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.--Amelia Earhart (Last Flight)
- Progress always involves risk; you can't steal second base and keep your feet on first.--Frederick Wilcox
- Revolutionaries don't get job security.--Ruby Dee
- Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.--Katherine Mansfield
- Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.--Helen Keller (Let Us Have Faith)
- A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.--Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
- Spiritual life and secure life do not go together; to save oneself on must struggle and take risks.--Ignazio Silone
- Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.--Dale Carnegie (Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook)
- Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.--Mary Tyler Moore
- Take risks ... be willing to put your mind and your spirit, your time and your energy, your stomach and your emotions on the line. To search for a safe place, to search for an end to a rainbow, is to search for a place that you will hate once you find it. The soul must be nourished along with the bank account and the resume. The best nourishment for any soul is to create your own risks.--Jim Lehrer
- Take ... the path that runs along the cliff--that one, the one without any guardrails. Take that path, and know the exhilaration of the ride and the pride you feel when you reach the end will inspire you to take that path again and again. And that experience ... every day, will make you more fulfilled, more complete, and more alive.--Harry Beckwith (What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business)
- That's the risk you take if you change: that people you've been involved with won't like the new you. But other people who do will come along.--Lisa Alther
- There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.--John F. Kennedy
- To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.--Soren Kierkegaard
- To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
They may avoid suffering an d sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves; they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.--Anonymous Chicago teacher
- To win without risk is to triumph without glory.--Pierre Corneille
- Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity; they seem more afraid of life then of death.--James F. Byrnes
- Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.--Mark Twain
- Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.--William Congreve
- We all yearn for mastery. But mastery is always limited. Sooner or later we will come to the edge of all that we can control and find life, waiting thee for us.--Rachel Naomi Remen (My Grandfather's Blessings)
- We may by our excessive prudence squeeze out of the life we are guarding so anxiously all the adventurous quality that makes it worth living.--Randolph Bourne
- We must dare, and dare again, and go on daring.--Georges Jacques Danton
- We rest here while we can, but we hear the ocean calling in our dreams,
And we know by the morning, the wind will fill our sails to test the seams,
The calm is on the water and part of us would linger by the shore,
For ships are safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.--Tom Kimmel & Michael Lille
- What I try to do as an actor is constantly find that, find ways to risk, find opportunities to fall on my face if it's going to be worth it, and then maybe I'll surprise myself.--Jeremy Irons
- What you risk reveals what you value.--Jeanette Winterson (Written on the Body)
- When fog prevents a small-boat sailor from seeing the buoy marking the course he wants, he turns his boat rapidly in small circles, knowing that the waves he makes will rock the buoy in the vicinity. Then he stops, listens and repeats the procedure until he hears the buoy clang. By making waves, he finds where his course lies… Often the price of finding these guides is a willingness to take a few risks, to "make a few waves." A boat that stays in the harbor never encounters dangers--but it also never gets anywhere.--Richard Armstrong
- When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.--Patrick Overton
- When you find your path, you must ignore fear. You need to have the courage to risk mistakes. But once you are on that road... run, run, run, and don't stop til you've reached its end.--Jose N. Harris (Mi Vida: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love)
- Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall.--Tobias G. Smollett
- Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing taking.--Tim McMahon
- You can become a winner only if you are willing to walk over the edge.--Damon Runyon
- You must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best and still don't win, at least you can be satisfied that you've tried. If you don't accept failure as a possibility, you don't set high goals, and you don't branch out, you don't try--you don't take the risk.--Rosalynn Carter
- You must take the risk to disclose yourself in order to become more real, more human. And even if the price is high.--Isabelle Adjani
- You’ll learn, as you get older, that rules are made to be broken. Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it. Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path. Laugh in the face of adversity, and leap before you look. Dance as though EVERYBODY is watching. March to the beat of your own drummer. And stubbornly refuse to fit in.--Mandy Hale (The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass)
- You've got to go out on a limb sometimes because that's where the fruit is.--Will Rogers
- You've got to take the initiative and play your game...confidence makes the difference.--Chris Evert
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