Proactive Response Quotes

If a superior alien civilization sent us a message saying, 'We'll arrive in a few decades', would we just reply, 'OK, call us when you get here - we'll leave the lights on'? Probably not - but this is more or less what is happening with AI.

If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in.

You cannot stop destructive actions by others, but you can stop your own destructive reactions to them

Our world needs to move from managing crises to preventing them in the first place. Too often, the world responds too late and too little.

The only way of finding a solution is to fight back, to move, to run, and to control that pressure.

Fear isn't an excuse to come to a standstill. It's the impetus to step up and strike.

In responding to a terrorist attack, there are only two choices - take the fight to the enemy or wait until they hit you again. In my estimation, America chose the first.

How much damage will have been done before we act?

I'll continue to take what the defense gives me. That's the way that I've always played.

There are circumstances in which despair does not imply inactivity.

Humans are not as unsophisticated as mulch wrigglers, they can see the writing on the wall. Is it any surprise, that among the ones who look outward, the real debate is not over whether to run, but over how far and how fast?

If you foul up, tell the President and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes.

Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to the bigger change that are to come

We sometimes emphasize the danger in a crisis without focusing on the opportunities that are there. We should feel a great sense of urgency because it is the most dangerous crisis we have ever faced, by far. But it also provides us with opportunities to do a lot of things we ought to be doing for other reasons anyway. And to solve this crisis we can develop a shared sense of moral purpose.

Direct threats require decisive action.

If I hear something's not quite going right, then I'm there quicker than if I hear something's going wrong.

The nature of the presidency is that sometimes you don't choose which challenges come to your desk. You do decide how to respond.

Now is not the time to shrink from the challenge of saving our only home in the universe. Now is not the time to pull into ourselves, retreating into either survivalist or escapist mode. To the contrary, this is the time for titans, not turtles. Now is the time to open our arms, expand our horizons, and dream big. Big problems require big solutions.

Here's the positive scenario: that something has been going wrong in American society. You see it in wage growth, opioid abuse, many other social indicators, as you know. Sometimes it's better to get the bad reaction to that over with quickly while your civil society still is strong and you can react and respond and protest, and you know, four or eight years from now, make another decision, and maybe it's better to have that happen in 2017 than 20 years later when some of our problems are worse and our national mood is worse.

Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it.

I see dead people. But, then by God, I do something about it!

The times that I have done something that I didn't respond to emotionally right away, it's generally not worked out too well.

Accommodation to change, the thoughtful pursuit of alternative futures are keys to the survival of civilization and perhaps of the human species.

We are turning our grief into winnable actions.

A lot of military people just take orders, and there is a place for that. But SEALs think for themselves from day one. That way, when something happens - a kid runs out of a room, a woman is held as a human shield - they can make those decisions on the fly. We always say: "Improvise, adapt and overcome."