Thomas Sowell Quotes

I make bad decisions frequently. They're fun.

there are risks you'll take for yourself because you know that if your plan goes wrong, it'll be too late for regrets. but if you risk the lives of others and fail, you'll have a lifetime to regret it.

No matter what your decisions are, no matter what your votes are, if you're not playing by the rules, you're taking a big risk.

I was always the kid at school who thought it was a good idea to set off the fire alarm. And much as I'm aware that that's a trait which also propels other things which are good, I wish I could just pause and go, 'Is this really what you want to do?'

If you're going to do something wrong, do it big, because the punishment is the same either way.

John Travolta said he sometimes lets his friends take control of his airplane even though they don't know what they're doing. Then Travolta said he often does the same thing with his career.

I know that young people sometimes, caught up in the moment, make some very foolish decisions.

You take unacceptable risk, you have to be prepared to face the consequence.

It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not pay with their own.

It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge.

Moral hazard is something I don't take lightly.

I take risks, but I don't lose respect for my real self. Because what's going to happen afterwards? How are you going to get back? Is there going to be a train, or will it be after midnight and you can't go home again?

I used to always judge other people's mistakes in the mountains. I think a bit differently now. Everybody's gotten away with a mistake or poor decision out there at one point or another, but sometimes it catches up to you, or sometimes you're just plain unlucky.

I made bad decisions. I'm not denying that I made bad decisions.

In their zeal for particular kinds of decisions to be made, those with the vision of the anointed seldom consider the nature of the: process: by which decisions are made. Often what they propose amounts to third-party decision making by people who pay no cost for being wrong-surely one of the least promising ways of reaching decisions satisfactory to those who must live with the consequences.

The possibility of remedying imprudent actions is commonly an inducement to commit them.

Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.

With rock n' roll and touring comes a lot of good and bad decisions. These guys who are 21, they're out there, and they're not indestructible. The history of rock n' roll tells us, and so a lot of these guys are on this road to destruction.

Anyone who has actually had to take responsibility for consequences by running any kind of enterprise whether economic or academic, or even just managing a sports team is likely at some point to be chastened by either the setbacks brought on by his own mistakes or by seeing his successes followed by negative consequences that he never anticipated.

It's a choice, Annabel. And if you make the wrong one, you have only yourself to blame when there are consequences.

When you've burned the bridges behind you, don't go starting a fire on the one in front of you.

You always have a choice. It's just that some people make the wrong one.

If I was going to act irresponsibly, the least I could do was be responsible for it.

Before you invest, you must ensure that you have realistically assessed your probability of being right and how you will react to the consequences of being wrong.

There is nothing more dangerous than to leap a chasm in two jumps.