Charles Evans Hughes Quotes

The actions you plan to take and the actions you actually decide to take [in a crisis] are not always the same.

American government has usually been pretty good in a crisis and pretty lousy at all other times.

Crisis management … is the worst type of policy because you will miss things.

We know we cannot underestimate the importance of emergency planning in our region, nor can we assume we'll have ample warning time. If an earthquake or terrorist attack hits, we won't necessarily have advance alerts or opportunities to double- and triple-check our plans.

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

For political and bureaucratic reasons, governments at all levels are telling far less to the public than to insiders about how to prepare for and behave in the initial chaos of a mass-casualty event.

What you say and do in a crisis matters.

We've got to be judged by how we do in times of crisis.

Over the years, I've been involved in many business crises. I qualify this, since my crises have never involved life and death or the survival of the human race. But they are still crises.

When there is a crisis, how you handle the crisis is just as important as the crisis.

I think we live in a constant state of emergency.

Don't wait until you're in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan.

So, all during the '90s and, you know, for the first half of this decade, we had opportunities to get evacuation plans in place, better communications in place.

We've certainly learned a lot of lessons from Katrina, from Rita. Rita was better than Katrina. We're doing a better job planning. We're closer - more closely aligned with the Department of Defense. These things would be positive things if we were to have another attack.

I want to assure your excellency that I am occupying myself permanently and jointly with my team to achieve a solution as soon as possible to this crisis, the principal objective being the safeguarding of the health and life of those who are inside.

If national safety - the ability to respond to hurricanes, terrorist attacks, earthquakes - depends on the execution of explicit plans, on soldierly obedience, and on showy security drills, then a decentralized security scheme is useless.

Anything you say before a pandemic occurs sounds alarmist; anything you say after it occurs is inadequate.

Franklin, you may have to assume dictatorial powers.

The human mind is too apt to rush from one extreme to another; it appears, by the objections that came from the different States … For now the cry is power, give Congress power. Without reflecting that every free nation, that hath ever existed, has lost its liberty by the same rash impatience, and want of necessary caution.

Those republics which in time of danger cannot resort to a dictatorship, or some similar authority, will generally be ruined when grave emergencies occur.

The nation’s disaster mechanisms do not seem to be in the hands of those who know how to use them.

To solve a major crisis, you have to do things you would never do in normal times or even in a modest crisis…. What feels just and fair is often just the opposite of what is required for a just and fair outcome. It is why policy makers generally tend to make crises worse, and why the politics of crises management is always untenable.

The value of catastrophic events is that they can help people face up to problems that are otherwise impossible to address.

If the crisis lasts moments, rapid action is critical. But if it's simply the beginning of a broader issue, especially one where the root cause isn't known yet, the worst thing a leader can do is act immediately.

When facing a national crisis, we cannot allow a political vacuum to exist.