Tom Clancy Quotes

A very small cause which escapes our notice determines a considerable effect that we cannot fail to see, and then we say that the effect is due to chance.

You never know why something works or doesn't.

Chance doesn't mean meaningless randomness, but historical contingency. This happens rather than that, and that's the way that novelty, new things, come about.

You can't plan anything, right? You can try.

The minute you start to strategize too much, the more you start to think you're in control of your own fate. And you're not, really.

I set up situations that involve abandoning control and finding out what happens.

It is such a complex matter we live within, it is impossible to track logic and decision making really, so therefore each choice can actually only be seen as coincidence.

Accidents rule men, not men accidents.

Historians emphasize contingency, complexity, and the unanticipated ... Few principles apply all the time.

Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things.

I don't like to make predictions, because my life's been pretty unpredictable so far.

Trajectories aren't linear. Life's just a roller coaster. If you're getting a chance to do cool stuff, and it's varied stuff, just enjoy it. I guess I'm a believer in the randomness of life rather than it being a linear trajectory or an arc, a consistent smooth arc, towards anything.

You can't really explain why things happen.

History is about great forces, yes, but also about contingency.

All I can do is play the game the way the cards fall.

I realized that there are no certainties in life. You can't manipulate fate.

If one does not expect the unexpected, one will not find it out, since it is not to be searched out, and difficut to compass.

There is no such thing as chance or accident; the words merely signify our ignorance of some real and immediate cause.

How do you calculate upon the unforeseen? It seems to be an art of recognizing the role of the unforeseen, of keeping your balance amid surprises, of collaborating with chance, of recognizing that there are some essential mysteries in the world and thereby a limit to calculation, to plan, to control. To calculate on the unforeseen is perhaps exactly the paradoxical operation that life most requires of us.

A resolution that is communicated is no longer within thy power; thy attentions become now the plaything of chance; he who would have his commands certainly carried out must take man by surprise.

Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.

The complexities of cause and effect defy analysis.

Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots - but you have to play the ball where it lies.

It means you never know what's going to happen,' I said. 'You do your best, then take your chances. Everything else is beyond our control.

Does fate ever play by the rules?