Leon Kass Quotes

It would be foolish, in forming our expectations, to attach great weight to matters which are very uncertain.

Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.

The real world is far too complex and unpredictable to make something like the idea of humanity controlling its own evolution or engineering itself - well, I wouldn't say impossible but it should be approached with a degree of caution.

You have to test your hypothesis against other theories. Certainty in the face of complex situations is very dangerous.

Let him remember that many before now have tried to chastise a wrongdoer, and failing to punish their enemy have not even saved themselves; while many who have trusted in force to gain an advantage, instead of gaining anything more, have been doomed to lose what they had. Vengeance is not necessarily successful because wrong has been done, or strength sure because it is confident; but the incalculable element in the future exercises the widest influence, and is the most treacherous, and yet in fact the most useful of all things, as it frightens us all equally, and thus makes us consider before attacking each other.

We should be very chary of sacrificing large numbers of people for the sake of a contingent end, however advantageous that may appear… We never know enough to make the chance worth taking.

Every technology is used before it is completely understood. We are living in that lag, and it is a right time to keep our head.

Technology always takes longer [to develop] than you think.

I think that, hundreds of years from now, if people invent a technology that we haven't heard of yet, maybe a computer could turn evil. But the future is so uncertain. I don't know what's going to happen five years from now. The reason I say that I don't worry about AI turning evil is the same reason I don't worry about overpopulation on Mars.

Sir, that much prudence calls for too much worry; I cannot foresee misfortunes so far away.

Fear looks like wisdom to those without risk.

Assumptions are dangerous things to make, and like all dangerous things to make - bombs, for instance, or strawberry shortcake - if you make even the tiniest mistake you can find yourself in terrible trouble.

Life is a festival only to the wise. Seen from the nook and chimneyside of prudence, it wears a ragged and dangerous front.

Even those who venture to dip a toe in the pond of risk never allow themselves to get used to the water.

The step between prudence and paranoia is short and steep. Prudence wears a seat belt. Paranoia avoids cars. Prudence washes with soap. Paranoia avoids human contact. Prudence saves for old age. Paranoia hoards even trash. Prudence prepares and plans, paranoia panics. Prudence calculates the risk and takes the plunge. Paranoia never enters the water.

The wound of peace is surety, Surety secure; but modest doubt is called The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches To th' bottom of the worst.

Everybody has noticed the way cats stop and loiter in a half-open door. Hasn't everyone said to a cat: For heavens sake why don't you come in? With opportunity half-open in front of them, there are men who have a similar tendency to remain undecided between two solutions, at the risk of being crushed by fate abruptly closing the opportunity. The overprudent, cats as they are, and because they are cats, sometimes run more danger than the bold

To hazard much to get much has more of avarice than wisdom.

One should not run on a new road.

You say this victory is dangerous. I say that today no one can yet tell if it's dangerous, that today I don't see the risks you mention. If, however, those risks should become reality...I'll act in accordance with the new reality.

There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for.

No precautions, and no precautionary principle, can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee. We need a stance of problem-fixing, not just problem-avoidance.

Caution, though very often wasted is a good risk to take.

Be curious about life, and cautious with it!

My point is not that everything is bad, but that everything is dangerous, which is not exactly the same as bad.