William J. Bernstein Quotes

I was a rust repairer. I was a rust repairer and full-time survivor. I survived all the major earthquakes, and the Titanic, and several air crash.

People look for an edge in an uncertain world.

Don’t ignore planning for unlikely events. Over long periods of time the highly improbable gets more probable to occur at least once.

In the '70s, you didn't know who was going to survive in a disaster film.

Don't you *ever* let go?" "I haven't yet." "Why?" "I suppose... because in this world, after everyone panics, there's always got to be someone to tip the wee out of the shoe.

Living things have been doing just that for a long, long time. Through every kind of disaster and setback and catastrophe. We are survivors.

A drunk doesn't try to stand up; a drunk tries not to fall down.

From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings.

Tho' much is taken, much abides.

You cannot prevent a major catastrophe, but you can build an organization that is battle-ready, where people trust one another. In military training, the first rule is to instill soldiers with trust in their officers - because without trust, they won't fight.

Sober or blotto, this is your motto: keep muddling through.

What I know for sure is that the only way to endure the quake is to adjust your stance. You can't avoid the daily tremors. Don't fight them. Just find a different way to stand.

In reality, you don’t ever change the hurricane. You just learn how to stay out of its path.

I've been through WTO riots in Seattle, massive earthquakes, major floods... forest fires. I just try to be as even-keeled and calm as possible.

You buy a house and you get it checked out and you feel like you've kind of made your mark here in some way. And then an act of God just comes up the coast and has the potential to just completely wipe it clean. Weather like that is certainly humbling.

The first few years in L.A. were really tough and scary, but I had to figure things out for myself.

For all your days be prepared, and meet them ever alike. When you are the anvil, bear - when you are the hammer, strike.

When times get tough, at some point, people instinctively know they need to lighten up in order to get through it.

I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up.

I think you make the best with what you've got, you know? Sometimes you have very little. And you just always try to rise to higher ground, because you're going to suffer one way or the other, so you just hope that you have strength and perseverance and good friends and faith, some kind of faith, to endure and move on to greener pastures.

Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe.

How many 54-year-old quadriplegics are putting albums out? You just have to deal with what you got, try to sustain yourself as best you can, and look to the things that you can do.

Only the paranoid survive.

I've got to get my real skills up; like, I got to get my skills up, 'cause in case of a crazy catastrophe, I might have to learn how to swim.

We cannot stop natural disasters but we can arm ourselves with knowledge: so many lives wouldn't have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness.