In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.

American stuntmen are smart – they think about safety. When they do a jump in a car, they calculate everything: the speed, the distance… But in Hong Kong, we don’t know how to count. Everything we do is a guess. If you’ve got the guts, you do it. All of my stuntmen have gotten hurt.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.

Anytime we step out boldly to make changes, we take a chance that we might fail. But the only way to get better is to try.

I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.

Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

Well, the odds must be against anybody being able to fly around the world in a balloon on the first attempt. All of us who are attempting to go around the world in balloons are effectively flying in experimental craft because these craft cannot be tested.

It’s no secret that we were sticking just about every nickel we had on the chance that people would really be interested in something totally new and unique in the field of entertainment.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

Clothes if they are not well cut, you can kill nobody. A building poorly built can kill people. It’s a much more difficult work. I would not compare myself with that.

Mission presidents hold keys of responsibility for the welfare, safety, and success of their missionaries.

The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy.

If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!

I like to get out and get up the court, using my speed and aggressiveness toward the hoop.

To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself.

It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.

Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country.

To be safe at the expense of the liberty of other people is a difficult equation.

I try to encourage all my teammates, and I sure hope that some day all athletes – my kids, high school kids – get the same level of care I get. Because you can play for a long period of time without having knee replacements, without having all the major head trauma that people are dealing with.

No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause.

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.

Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn’t any good reason to refer to it.

Move fast with stable infrastructure.

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

The world has today 546 nuclear plants generating electricity. Their experience is being continuously researched, and feedback should be provided to all. Nuclear scientists have to interact with the people of the nation, and academic institutions continuously update nuclear power generation technology and safety.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States.

It is better to risk starving to death then surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what’s left?

Well, I think that there’s a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you’re likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

Silence is safer than speech.

As an entrepreneur, I have been known for taking risks throughout my career, but leaving the European Union is not one of the risks I would want the U.K. to take – not as an investor, not as a father, and not as a grandfather. I am deeply concerned about the impact of leaving.

The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear – fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.

I nearly failed when Virgin was in its infancy; I nearly failed in the early 1980s, and, of course, I have nearly died more than once trying to achieve a world record for boating or ballooning. But through a combination of luck and planning, both Virgin and I are still here.

I’ve always hated the danger part of climbing, and it’s great to come down again because it’s safe.

I would like to fly in space. Absolutely. That would be cool. I used to just do personally risky things, but now I’ve got kids and responsibilities, so I can’t be my own test pilot. That wouldn’t be a good idea. But I definitely want to fly as soon as it’s a sensible thing to do.

If we want to travel into the future, we just need to go fast. Really fast. And I think the only way we’re ever likely to do that is by going into space.

There are no small accidents on this circuit.

Growing up I’ve watched Lewis and aspired to have some of his attributes, mainly his speed. His raw pace is probably the best of everyone on the whole grid, so there are bits you want from different drivers.

I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window.

Even though the risks of death are higher driving than flying, many people would rather drive simply because they feel they have more control driving. The facts are that only a few hundred people die a year flying, and 44,000 are killed a year driving.

I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

Live dangerously and you live right.

Before I do a stunt, I have to make sure it is safe.

The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

Precaution is better than cure.

Basically what I’m trying to tell you is that it’s almost impossible to drive a jet ski at night time unless you’re in a city with lights lit up so you can navigate. Besides being pitch black, that water turn black at night. Listen, I don’t recommend it.

There is no way I would ask others to go on a Virgin Galactic flight if I didn’t feel it was safe enough for myself.

I ride my bike almost every day here in New York. It’s getting safer to do so, but I do have to be fairly alert when riding on the streets as opposed to riding on the Hudson River bike path or similar protected lanes.

It is to the middle-class we must look for the safety of England.

I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.

Fortune befriends the bold.