risk-taking quotes

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

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.

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.

It is true that going out on to the street implies the risk of accidents happening, as they would to any ordinary man or woman. But if the church stays wrapped up in itself, it will age. And if I had to choose between a wounded church that goes out on to the streets and a sick, withdrawn church, I would definitely choose the first one.

There is always safety in valor.

Well private money can take risks in a way that government money often isn’t willing to.

It’s easier to aim to please and say what others want to hear than to form an opinion and fight for it, even if it means taking a risk or losing your job.

A financial institution has the task of taking risks, and if it’s a well run institution – say, Goldman Sachs – it tries to cover the potential losses to itself, but only to itself.

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.

Live dangerously and you live right.

An idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

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.

I didn’t want to play it boring and safe. I also didn’t want to innovate too much. Second albums, man, they’re even scarier than first ones.

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.

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.

The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.

The man who knows it can’t be done counts the risk, not the reward.

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

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.

In crises the most daring course is often safest.

You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.

Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide?

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.

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.

I take risks because I get bored. And I get bored very easily.

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

Fortune befriends the bold.

Producing all my own songs and refusing to go to the hot producer. That’s the biggest risk I’ve taken so far.

Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.

If you only do things where you know the answer in advance, your company goes away.

You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.

With Virgin, I’ve just loved creating things. And as a private company, I can get away with moving Virgin from records to airlines to train companies to space companies to whatever, without ever having to worry about analysts knocking the value of my stock.

The risk for me would be in not taking one – that’s the only thing that’s really risky for me.

Political courage is not political suicide.

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.

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

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.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

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

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.

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.

It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.

Never was anything great achieved without danger.

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

If he have faith, the believer cannot be restrained. He betrays himself. He breaks out. He confesses and teaches this gospel to the people at the risk of life itself.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.

It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.

You never know with these things when you’re trying something new what can happen. This is all experimental.

There’s a silly notion that failure’s not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

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.