foresight quotes

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong – these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

I don’t try to describe the future. I try to prevent it.

My business is to prevent the future.

Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.

The fellow that can only see a week ahead is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd. But the one that can see years ahead, he has a telescope but he can’t make anybody believe that he has it.

Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.

I try to prepare for everything beyond the extent of preparation.

I’m not a futurist.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don’t believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can’t possibly foresee now.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

A lack of realism in the vision today costs credibility tomorrow.

Who is the wise man? He who sees what’s going to be born.

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

I was a peripheral visionary. I could see the future, but only way off to the side.

He who could foresee affairs three days in advance would be rich for thousands of years.

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.