Philip Kerr Quotes

When something is universal enough in our everyday lives, we take it for granted to the point of forgetting it exists.

The biggest catastrophes that we've witnessed rarely come from information that is secret or hidden. It comes from information that is freely available and out there, but that we are willfully blind to.

Being convinced one knows the whole story is the surest way to fail.

God knows how many things a man misses by becoming smug and assuming that matters will take their own course.

During the times of peace and prosperity a leader becomes careless and unmindful of the future

Ignorance is a matter of laziness, indifference, and apathy.

I think you cannot be too complacent. I think that's dangerous, and you cannot take anything for granted.

I've been asked a lot lately what message is there in the Lusitania for the modern day. To be honest, not much. Except that maybe hubris and overconfidence are always dangerous things.

I am not taking anything for granted.

You never want to be too comfortable because that's when you start to get complacent and start doing those little stupid things and getting too relaxed.

When something is working well, it becomes too easy to let things run themselves.

I think it can be easy at a certain point to take it for granted that you can kind of perform whatever you want.

Thinking you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone

Seven national crimes: 1. I don't think. 2. I don't know. 3. I don't care. 4. I am too busy. 5. I leave well enough alone. 6. I have no time to read and find out. 7. I am not interested.

There is but a slight difference between the man who may be said to know nothing and him who thinks he knows everything.

Familiarity breeds contempt only when it breeds inattention.

Success hides problems...you don't need to address problems.

When people are too comfortable, it is not possible to restrain them within the bounds of their duty? They may be compared to mules who, being accustomed to burdens, are spoilt by rest rather than labour.

The universe is full of dead people who lived by assumption.

In other words, the more stupid one is, the more he thinks he knows.

Thinking ... is what gets you caught from behind.

Guessing a thing ain't knowing a thing.

We think we know what we are doing. We have always thought so. We never seem to acknowledge that we have been wrong in the past, and so might be wrong in the future. Instead, each generation writes off earlier errors as the result of bad thinking by less able minds - and then confidently embarks on fresh errors of its own.

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.

Thinking you know something is a sure way to blind yourself.