50 Awesome Quotes on Risk Taking

1. “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” — Goethe

2. “Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller

3. “It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” — Seneca

4. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.” — T.S. Eliot

5. “What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it is another matter.” — Peter Drucker

6. “Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” — Jimmy Carter

7. “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” — Pablo Picasso

8. “Life is being on the wire, everything else is just waiting. — Karl Wallenda

9. “If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.” — Mario Andretti

10. “Don’t be afraid to take a big step. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.” — David Lloyd George

11. “It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all.” — William James

12. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

13. “Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s.” — Billy Wilder

14. “The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.” — Goethe

15. “Do not fear mistakes. There are none.” — Miles Davis

16. “A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with what he has done.” — Cardinal Newman

17. “Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.” — Tom Peters

18. “Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

19. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

20. “Leap and the net will appear.” — Zen Saying

21. “The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you. Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” — William Jennings Bryan

22. “Pearls don’t lie on the seashore. If you want one, you must dive for it.” — Chinese proverb

23. “Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.” — Samuel Johnson

24. “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” — Anais Nin

25. “Are you placing enough interesting, freakish, long shot, weirdo bets?” — Tom Peters

26. “Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” — General George Patton

27. “I can accept failure. Everybody fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. Fear is an illusion.” — Michael Jordan

28. “Opportunity dances with those on the dance floor.” — Anonymous

29. “Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called ‘sure-thing-taking.'” — Jim McMahon

30. “People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” — Peter Drucker

31. “Necessity is the mother of taking chances.” — Mark Twain

32. “99 percent of success is built on failure.” — Charles Kettering

33. “Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.” — Frederick Wilcox

34. “What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” — Robert Schuller

35. “Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.” — Mignon McLaughlin

36. “You can only be as good as you dare to be bad.” — John Barrymore

37. “Anything that is successful is a series of mistakes.” — Billie Armstrong

38. “Give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

39. “If it’s a good idea, go ahead and do it. It’s much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.” — Rear Admiral Grace Hopper

40. “If you risk nothing, then you risk everything.” — Geena Davis

41. “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky

42. “Remember, a dead fish can float down a stream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream.” — W.C. Fields

43. “Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.” — Anonymous

44. “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.” — Soren Kierkegaard

45. “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky

46. “It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves.” — Andre Gide

47. “Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

48. “One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” — Andre Gide

49. “Danger can never be overcome without taking risks.” — Latin Proverb

50. “I’ll play it first, and tell you what it is later.” — Miles Davis

Thanks to Val Vadeboncoeur for gathering these goodies. If you have other favorites, let us know.

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Mitch Ditkoff is the Co-Founder and President of Idea Champions and the author of “Awake at the Wheel”, as well as the very popular Heart of Innovation blog.