William Shakespeare Quotes
Were it good
To set the exact wealth of all our states
All at one cast? to set so rich a main
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
It were not good.
Shakespeare, William. Henry IV, Part 1. The Riverside Shakespeare, edited by G. Blakemore Evans, 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
In this particular case Griffin was referring to manned space flight, but the principle is a general one. Risk can be managed and in many cases minimized, but can never be eliminated completely unless virtually all activity ceases.
Describing the NASA safety program at the time of the Challenger disaster:
He is absolutely right, but unfortunately made this statement several years after he served as the Fed Chairman. He never made a statement like this when he and his colleagues made their policies based on their economic forecasting. Central bankers have generally felt that one of their jobs was to give the people confidence in the nation’s banking system and economy and the admission that much policy making was based on “coin toss” forecasting.
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. They also continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
