John McCarthy Quotes

If you don't have a voice that forces you back to basics, you're a dangerous person. Or to put it another way: You're at risk, and the people with you are at risk. I'm not a daredevil. I don't fly without a safety net.

… problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.

I play low to the ice and that's a way I've protected myself in the past - I just felt that it was better to be safe than sorry.

Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.

My errors will point to thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it.

The best way to cope with trouble is to stay out of it as much as possible.

I seek as much as I can to mitigate risk.

In fair weather prepare for foul.

Only the paranoid survive.

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.

People need to learn to live with more risk.

Normally in dangerous situations I have a getaway car.

A danger foreseen is half-avoided.

The challenge of our times is to leave nothing to chance.

It is impossible to carry the American people along with you on a program of caution to forestall a threatening position.

I am someone who hopes for the best and prepares for the worst.

Look several months ahead, see where the obstacles lie, and figure out ways to overcome them.

I grew up military but have met very few women that have a mission plan for when things don't work out. I attack everything like that.

If anybody knows that you need to be prepared regardless of the situation, that's me.

I always prepare for the worst.

I don't like to risk - I'm actually not a tough guy at all, make no mistake about it, so I'm not going to do something that I'm scared of. So, if something looks dangerous, at the time I didn't think it was, because I'm the first person to cower away from a risk of injury if there seems to be one.

We wait until Pandora's box is opened before we say, "Wow, maybe we should understand what's in that box." This is the story of humans on every problem.

We don't want to make a mistake. Would you rather make the mistake and err on the side of caution or wait until something happens and then answer to the American people, why you didn't vet these people properly?

Never gamble without knowing a back way out.

Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.