Quotes: On Risk Taking
Years ago I recall a psychology professor citing a research survey in which mental health professionals were asked what personality characteristics were most representative of good psychological health. Surprisingly, the most frequently mentioned characteristic was the ability to take risks. It's interesting to reflect on our willingness to take meaningful risks in our professional and personal lives. Below are several quotes on "risk taking."
"All of life is on the wire, all else is waiting."
— Anonymous circus aerialist
"If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough."
—Mario Andretti (race car driver)
"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures."
— William Shakespeare
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
"I don't want to come to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well."
-- Diane Ackerman
"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish."
–Ovid
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
- Jack London
"There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community."
--M. Scott Peck: