Ambrose Bierce Quotes

A bird in the hand is worth more than a Bush.

A God in the hand is worth two in the bush.

A feather in hand is better then a bird in the ayre.

Better one byrde in hand than ten in the wood.

He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush.

A bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush, but remember also that a bird in the hand is a positive embarrassment to one not in the poultry business.

I cannot help esteem The 'Bird within the Hand' Superior to the one The 'Bush' may yield me Or may not Too late to choose again

It is said, that the thing you possess is worth more than two you may have in the future. The one is sure and the other is not.

A bird in hand is a certainty. But a bird in the bush may sing.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

Part of me longs to do a job where there's not a gray area.

As the future is never known with certainty, the evaluation of the prospective benefits requires the formation of expectations. An acceptable house, partner or job, then, is one that offers an expected stream of future benefit that has a value in excess of the option to continue to search for an even better alternative.

There's no point in giving up something you enjoy unless you get something back that's even better, and quickly.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

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.

Affairs are easier of entrance than of exit. It is but common prudence to see the way out before we venture in.

Have regard not merely to what is permissible but especially to what is expedient.

Be sure you are right, then go ahead.

Property is desirable, is a positive good in the world.

I made a cold calculation that I wasn’t going to waste time on a futile struggle.

We tend to ignore the high probability of small gains or losses and focus on big payoffs or disaster despite remote odds.

A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps.

When the President is a moralist, he needs a process that will make up for the natural shortcomings of such a style—an inattention to second-step thinking, an allergy to detail, a tendency not to see the point of having dissenters, a habit of allowing certainty to override considerations of risk. It is the National Security Advisor’s responsibility to fill a President’s strategic gaps, not to exacerbate them.

Valuations are always much-debated. I try to center on what is the value to us. Is it solving a problems for us? If it is, we find a way to proceed. If the valuation has been overhyped on something and it doesn't make sense, we won't. It's very simple for me. I tend not to worry too much about the valuation. It's really what the value is to us.

It's not like you take the right turning and you get everlasting happiness and you take the wrong one and your life's a disaster. In real life it's often impossible to tell which decision is the one you should make because what you stand to gain and what you stand to lose are sometimes-often-neck and neck.