Isaac Asimov Quotes

The art of government is to deal with threats before they become overwhelming.

Our top focus - protecting our Nation - must go beyond homeland preparedness; America will only be secure if we deal with threats before they happen, not just after they happen.

Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.

Our task, your task... is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.

Thus it happens in matters of state; for knowing afar off (which it is only given a prudent man to do) the evils that are brewing, they are easily cured. But when, for want of such knowledge, they are allowed to grow so that everyone can recognize them, there is no longer any remedy to be found.

If you don't choose to do it in leadership time up front, you do it in crisis management time down the road.

There is no doubt that the time to act is now. It is now that timely action can avert disaster. It is now that with foresight and will such action can be taken without disturbing the essence of our way of life, by adjusting behaviour not altering it entirely.

Take care of what is difficult while it is still easy, and deal with what will become big while it is yet small.

It's difficult when you're an appointee of any administration to publicly come out and say before a crisis occurs to say that we need to do X, Y and Z to avoid a crisis, because you probably wouldn't be around very long if you did that.

Some think that by preparing to deal with crises you make them more likely. I think the wiser judgment is the contrary. In this area at least, if you want peace or stability, it's better to prepare for war or instability.

People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that's the time to do something about it, not when it's around your neck.

If we can provide even a few months of early warning for just one pandemic, the benefits will outweigh all the time and energy we're devoting. Imagine preventing health crises, not just responding to them.

I fear, my Lords, it is too much the temper of this country to be insensible of the approach of danger, until it comes with accumulated terror upon us.

When you’re reactive [in foreign policy] you often arrive on the scene too late.

The earlier you start to solve a problem, the less draconian the solution needs to be.

The best way to avoid hostages being taken in the future is to devalue the hostages that exist.

Part of the genius of diplomacy is to resolve issues before crises come along.

If terrorists attacked New York, Washington, or San Francisco with a weapon of mass destruction, the next day we will all be asking what steps we might have taken to prevent it. So the question is, “Why do we not take those steps now?”

We must solve problems before they occur, rather than scrambling to deal with crises after they erupt..

Our world needs to move from managing crises to preventing them in the first place. Too often, the world responds too late and too little.

The international community spends much more time and resources managing crises than preventing them. But TV cameras are seldom there when a conflict is avoided, so it is difficult for governments and international organizations to make prevention a priority.

Good governance is not fire-fighting or crisis-management. Instead of opting for ad-hoc solutions the need of the hour is to tackle the root cause of the problems.

Precaution is better than a cure.

The essence of leadership is being able to see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic.

The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils.