S. Jay Olshansky Quotes

In my life, I was always floating around the edge of the dark side and saying what if take it a little bit too far, and who says you have to stop there, and what's behind the next door. Maybe you gain a wisdom from examining those things. But after a while, you get too far down in the quicksand.

Inevitably, these sorts of things are going to come back to blow up in people's faces.

We create monsters and then we can't control them.

Good intentions rarely make good policy.

Actions can have unintended adverse consequences.

The cure can be worse than the illness

Almost every achievement contains within its success the seeds of a future problem.

Every action we have is going to have repercussions in ways we could not anticipate.

Choices are easy when you have nothing to lose.

Danger is a side effect of what I do, not the reason behind it.

We wait until Pandora's box is opened before we say, "Wow, maybe we should understand what's in that box." This is the story of humans on every problem.

Some of the worst wrongs, were caused by people who tried to change things.

What is the point? We assume that every time we do anything we know what the consequences will be, i.e., more or less what we intend them to be. This is not only not always correct. It is wildly, crazily, stupidly, cross-eyed-blithering-insectly wrong!

I have observed over the years that the unanticipated consequences of social action are always more important, and usually less agreeable, than the intended consequences.

Half of the results of a good intentions are evil; half the results of an evil intention are good.

What is forgotten, however, is that many times the Good we create leads to Evil that will destroy us.

Be careful what you ask for because when you pray for rain, you have to deal with the mud as well.

To refuse has so many more consequences than submitting.

Risk always looks different when you're beating the system than when you've been beaten.

Before I make an action, think about the consequences. ... Any decision I make is a heavy decision.

The thing about exploring is that you have to know whether the thing you've found is worth finding. Some things are just sitting there, minding their own business, waiting to be discovered. Like America. And other things are probably better off left alone. Like a dead mouse at the back of the cupboard.

A Warrior knows that everything a person does has enduring consequences.

People make decisions that may have one intent and yet are somehow perverted into something else. And sometimes it's because of design. Sometimes it's because of happenstance. But very often, it's mysterious to them.

Avoid a remedy that is worse than the disease.

All inquiries carry with them some element of risk.