Angela Merkel Quotes

When you have a clear vision of your goal, it's easier to take the first step toward it.

On the foreign policy side, there's the risk of being too spontaneous and too disruptive where you end up doing more harm than damage. And figuring out that balance is where having strong people around you matters.

Sometimes I think we can tell how important it is to risk by how dangerous it is to do so.

Your direction is more important than your speed.

I don't believe in taking foolish chances, but nothing can be accomplished if we don't take any chances at all.

With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater the margin that can be left for accidents.

I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk.

I've had to make really big decisions, knowing the results were not always in my control. Through these moments, I've learned to be daring and take risks but understand that everything always happens for a reason.

Promotion should not be more important than accomplishment, or avoiding instability more important than taking the right risk.

See what is worth learning, and what is worth doing. Thus, you gain an understanding of what is vital, and what is not vital. You need to learn what is important and what is not important. You need to understand what will move you upwards and onwards, and what will hinder you from traveling the higher path.

Knowing when to fight is just as important as knowing how.

Sometimes the path you're on is not as important as the direction you're heading.

You can't lead without taking risk.

Know what you want to do, because if you don't know what you want to do, you'll get stuck.

Take calculated risks.

There is nothing wrong with a big bet, if a big bet is a good bet.

Deciding under uncertainty is bad enough, but deciding under an illusion of certainty is catastrophic.

The directing thing, to do it well, I think you have to have a hell of a lot more discipline than I do, or be a lot more willing to really take charge of whole large group of people than I feel comfortable doing - because a director really has to run everything, and be very confident in their ability to do so.

In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that offer.

Too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run.

Determine on some course more than a wild exposure to each chance.

If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him. Ignoranti quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est.

There is no perfect strategic decision. One always has to pay a price. One always has to balance conflicting objectives, conflicting opinions, and conflicting priorities. The best strategic decision is only an approximation - and a risk.

All I ever wanted was to know what to do.

It's a very wise thing for people to rationally sit down and look at what the risks are not only on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis, on a yearly basis, on a lifetime basis, and then plan one's life accordingly.