Carl Honore Quotes

You take care of emergencies first—in life and in politics.

I think we live in a constant state of emergency.

No doubt, anarchy, once established, might not last forever. But if your house is on fire, the sensible course of action is to put out the fire, even though this extinguishment provides no guarantee that the house will never catch fire again.

In the last 5 years I've been working with the LAPD, training police officers in first aid and CPR.

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.

I am desperate for change - now - not in 8 years or 12 years, but right now.

When you have an emergency, there is the urge to do whatever it takes to see people get assistance.

You want to put the fire out first and then worry about the fire code.

I had all of one nanosecond to savor the news before we had to move on to other problems.

Desperate maladies require desperate remedies.

When your house is on fire—that is not the time to talk

We simply have to end this thing. It is out of control.

If we don’t tackle these problems soon, they will tackle us.

Patience, they say, is a virtue. Yet in times of emergency, the government needs to be able to make snap decisions and take bold, decisive action to protect the American people.

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.

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.

If my house is on fire, I don't need the fire chief telling me I should not have built the house out of wood. I need somebody to put the fire out.

Evaluate. Long experience had taught me to evaluate and assess. When the unexpected gets dumped on you, don’t waste time. Don’t figure out how or why it happened. Don’t recriminate. Don’t figure out whose fault it is. Don’t work out how to avoid the same mistake next time. All of that you do later. If you survive.

Summits are best at dealing with problems, where the need for action is urgent and the range of possible actions limited. They are less good at dealing with opportunities.

There are some things that you can work on immediately.

Nothing like a little disaster for sorting things out.

Great, the worlds coming to an end and we're fixing it with Band-Aids

In England if something goes wrong--say, if one finds a skunk in the garden--he writes to the family solicitor, who proceeds to take the proper measures; whereas in America, you telephone the fire department. Each satisfies a characteristic need; in the English, love of order and legalistic procedure; and here in America, what you like is something vivid, and red, and swift.

Unsolvable problems do not exist. Any crisis is a combination of specific tasks to be worked on. The government has the experience and reserves to overcome the economic downturn