It's remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.
I have a great map of the Tibesti Mountains in the southern Sahara or Northern Chad. It's a dream of mine to go there, but it's such a volatile area, you have to be prudent.
It needed to be in the public record that no matter the size of the disaster, no matter the level of our compassion, that we have a responsibility to get emergency help to people the right way, but we also have a responsibility to be prudent in our planning.
He who has far to ride spares his horse.
I never try to set goals that I know are too tough to achieve or out of my reach.
The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.
If we are wise, let us prepare for the worst.
The story of Joseph in Egypt and of the seven fat and the seven lean years has passed into the homely wisdom of the ages; but our economic thinking seems to have lost contact with so simple and basic approach to prudent management of a nations welfare.
The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.
When you're young, you want to live fast, but you definitely don't want to die young. At the same time, you want to do things in slow, progressive manner that will benefit you in the future. Don't jump into things.
I hate to see prudence clinging to the green suckers of youth; 'tis like ivy round a sapling, and spoils the growth of the tree.
