Risk Quotes

“Risk means 'shit happens' or 'good luck”
― Toba Beta, Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza

“The only safe thing is to take a chance.”
― Elaine May

“Suddenly, I was just sure he was going to kiss me. He was there, I could feel his breath, the ground solid beneath us. But then something crossed his face, a thought, a hesitation, and he shifted slightly. Not now. Not yet. It was something I'd done so often - weighing what I could afford to risk, right at that moment - that I recognized it instantly. It was like looking in a mirror.”
― Sarah Dessen, What Happened to Goodbye

“They were two lovely choices. One of them meant giving up every chance of a decent life forever...and the other one scared me out of my mind.”
― Frederik Pohl, Gateway

“You touch some of the reasons for my going, not for my staying away.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“Since that day there is nothing anyone could ever say to convince me that one person cannot change a nation. One person can do unbelievable things. All it takes is that one person who's willing to risk everything to make it happen.”
― Sam Childers, Another Man's War: The True Story of One Man's Battle to Save Children in the Sudan

“Sirius looked out of the fire at Harry, a crease between his sunken eyes.
“You’re less like your father than I thought,” he said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. “The risk would’ve been what made it fun for James.”
“Look —”
“Well, I’d better get going . . . I’ll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, then, shall I? If you can stand to risk it?”
There was a tiny pop, and the place where Sirius’s head had been was flickering flame once more.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

“I couldn't look at her. I'd been jealous and hurt, and I had dragged Liv into the middle of my own broken mess of a life. All because I thought Lena didn't love me anymore. But I was stupid, and I was wrong. Lena loved me so much, she was willing to risk everything to save me.
I had given up on Lena, after she had refused to give up on me. I owed her my life. It was as simple as that.”
― Kami Garcia, Beautiful Darkness

“Love's easy to learn. It's like taking a risk. You set your mind on it and refuse to be afraid, and in no time you feel terrifically exhilarated and all your inhibitions fly out of the window.”
― Dick Francis, Dead Cert

“In theory, the risk of business failure can be reduced to a number, the probability of failure multiplied by the cost of failure. Sure, this turns out to be a subjective analysis, but in the process your own attitudes toward financial risk and reward are revealed.

By contrast, personal risk usually defies quantification. It's a matter of values and priorities, an expression of who you are. "Playing it safe" may simply mean you do not weigh heavily the compromises inherent in the status quo. The financial rewards of the moment may fully compensate you for the loss of time and fulfillment. Or maybe you just don't think about it. On the other hand, if time and satisfaction are precious, truly priceless, you will find the cost of business failure, so long as it does not put in peril the well-being of you or your family, pales in comparison with the personal risks of no trying to live the life you want today.

Considering personal risk forces us to define personal success. We may well discover that the business failure we avoid and the business success we strive for do not lead us to personal success at all. Most of us have inherited notions of "success" from someone else or have arrived at these notions by facing a seemingly endless line of hurdles extending from grade school through college and into our careers. We constantly judge ourselves against criteria that others have set and rank ourselves against others in their game. Personal goals, on the other hand, leave us on our own, without this habit of useless measurement and comparison.

Only the Whole Life Plan leads to personal success. It has the greatest chance of providing satisfaction and contentment that one can take to the grave, tomorrow. In the Deferred Life Plan there will always be another prize to covet, another distraction, a new hunger to sate. You will forever come up short.”
― Randy Komisar, The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur

“No risk is more terrifying than that taken by the first root. A lucky root will eventually find water, but its first job is to anchor -- to anchor an embryo and forever end its mobile phase, however passive that mobility was. Once the first root is extended, the plant will never again enjoy any hope (however feeble) of relocating to a place less cold, less dry, less dangerous. Indeed, it will face frost, drought, and greedy jaws without any possibility of flight. The tiny rootlet has only once chance to guess what the future years, decades -- even centuries -- will bring to the patch of soil where it sits. It assesses the light and humidity of the moment, refers to its programming, and quite literally takes the plunge.”
― Hope Jahren, Lab Girl

“Loving someone can be hard at times. You risk a lot when you love - your heart and soul, at the least. Love is the most important and most rewarding investment you can make in another person.”
― J.E.B. Spredemann, A Secret of the Heart

“As William James observed, we must reflect that, when we reach the end of our days, our life experience will equal what we have paid attention to, whether by choice or default. We are at risk, without quite fully realizing it, of living lives that are less our own than we imagine.”
― Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads

“Why would he appear to be so freaking concerned about me to my fake boyfriend anyway? she thought. He needs to mind his own business and keep out of mine. Shallow, arrogant bastard!”
― Sharon Carter, Love Auction: Too Risky to Love Again

“I want you, Sage. I want to be inside you so badly," he whispered, as he ran his tongue over her ear. “I want to explore your entire body," he muttered.”
― Sharon Carter, Love Auction: Too Risky to Love Again

“We are the bones of this city, the heart, the womb. The hidden structure and architecture behind the beautiful facades. We are unseen yet leaned upon, vessels yet not empty, the home for our families. The hopes of our city are thrust upon us, and we will be punished if we fail.”
― Gina Buonaguro, The Virgins of Venice

“Wisdom is nothing more than confirmed imagination: just because one did not study for his exam does not mean that he should leave it blank.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“How did your mom die?" she queried. “Her name was Megan Brimmer, and she had breast cancer. She passed away when I was twenty-three.”
― Sharon Carter, Love Auction: Too Risky to Love Again

“We must have courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk, and to act. Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness.”
― Maxwell Maltz

“The more we love the more we lose. The more we lose the more we learn. The more we learn the more we love. It comes full circle. Life is the school, love is the lesson. We cannot lose.”
― Kate McGahan

“If a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with. A man sits as many risks as he runs.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“If you play it safe in life, you've decided that you don't want to grow anymore.”
― Shirley Hufstedler

“We can't be in survival mode. We have to be in growth mode.”
― Jeff Bezos

“It is only by being bold that you get anywhere. If you are a risk-taker, then the art is to protect the downside.”
― Richard Branson, Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way

“If you didn't do anything that wasn't good for you it would be a very dull life. What are you gonna do? Everything that is pleasant in life is dangerous. Have you noticed that? I'd like to find the bastard that thought that one up.”
― Lemmy Kilmister

“You must go further than I did," Nedra said. "You know that."
"Further?"
"With your life. You must become free."
She did not explain it; she could not. It was not a matter of living alone, though in her case this had been necessary. The freedom she meant was self-conquest. It was not a natural state. It was meant only for those who would risk everything for it, who were aware that without it life is only appetites until the teeth are gone.”
― James Salter, Light Years

“Life is impoverished, it loses in interest, when the highest stake in the game of living, life itself, may not be risked. It becomes as shallow and empty as, let us say, an American flirtation.”
― Sigmund Freud, The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank: Inside Psychoanalysis

“Stop opening yourself up to this womanizer.  He doesn't deserve to know a freaking thing about you," she chastised herself.”
― Sharon Carter, Love Auction: Too Risky to Love Again

“To live a life of excellence, you will have to take risks. You will have to step into new territory and climb new mountains. If you’re up to something that’s as big as you are, it’s going to be scary. If it feels perfectly safe, you are probably underachieving. To leave your mark in the world, you will have to stand someplace you’ve never been willing to stand before. And you will have to have the courage to aspire to excellence.”
― Debbie Ford, The Best Year of Your Life: Dream It, Plan It, Live It

“BE SPONTANEOUS,
NEVER BE AFRAID TO TRY NEW THINGS
OR FIND NEW WAYS.
DON'T LET OVERPLANNING AND ROUTINE POISON YOUR LIFE.”
― Mouloud Benzadi