Ray Bradbury Quotes

We need to do a lot more thinking about how the regime is going to evolve, how the bad guys are going to adapt their tactics, and what measures we're going to need in order to go forward.

Foresight turns out to be a critical adaptive strategy for times of great stress.

It is what we prevent, rather than what we do that counts most in Government.

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.

I'd say if you wanted to forestall bad events, the best thing to do is anticipate them and try to correct them before they get close.

We know that terrorism can happen anywhere, at anytime. And we know the best way to prevent an attack is by working together.

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.

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

But I think the bottom line right now is to take the constructive criticism and use that to build toward, as I say, the hurricane season that is 100 days away. And we don't have a lot of time to waste before we start to address that next set of challenges.

My job is to give the president and secretary of defense military advice before they know they need it.

I think the idea that you would do everything you can to prevent what is coming at you by way of something very disruptive - a 9/11 - it's a no-brainer.

I always anticipated difficulties in order to avoid scenes.

I don't think anyone is thinking long-term now.

If we learned anything from the depression we will not allow ourselves to run around in new circles of futile discussion and debate, always postponing the day of decision.

We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge. If we wait for threats to fully materialize we will have waited too long.

Historically, decisive security action took place only after a disaster had occurred or a specific plot had been discovered.

We need to think the worst in order to avoid it.

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?”

Fire management resembles public health. There is ample money and will for response when the crisis is at hand, But little for the patient labor of prevention, vaccinations, and general wellness. Worse the costs of emergencies is stripping away all resources for everything else.

In the military, we have known for decades, if not centuries, that the time to prepare, whether it's for a hurricane, a typhoon or strategic changes, is before they hit you

Unless confronted by an immediate, visible, or uncomfortable crisis, our nation's tendency is to take the security of the Western Hemisphere for granted.

Responsibility demands action, and dealing with the immediate threat must naturally be a top priority.

We've gotta be trying to think of what's coming next before it comes next.

I don't think you just can put people on the starting block and then wait... for the next Ebola-like epidemic. I think that you need somehow a small-capacity response who's going to run the first few kilometers of the marathon.