Unforeseen Effects Quotes

The law of unintended consequences, far more than the Constitution, is what governs the modern presidency.

The law of unintended consequences pushes us ceaselessly through the years, permitting no pause for perspective.

The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history.

We destroy things with our curiosity. We shatter with our best intentions

There ain't nothing good that don't got real bad waiting to follow it.

Feed the alligators and you get bigger alligators.

War triggers unforeseeable military dynamics and sets off massive political shocks, creating new problems as well as new opportunities.

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another's net.

A book may lie dormant for fifty years or for two thousand years in a forgotten corner of a library, only to reveal, upon being opened, the marvels or the abysses that it contains, or the line that seems to have been written for me alone. In this respect the writer is not different from any other human being: whatever we say or do can have far-reaching consequences.

Is there a greater tragedy imaginable than that, in our endeavour consciously to shape our future in accordance with high ideals, we should in fact unwittingly produce the very opposite of what we have been striving for?

In a start-up society, huge sums can fall on innocent parties, almost by accident .

Was it serious? I don't know. It certainly had serious consequences.

Clearly there are always unintended consequences of any legislative or regulatory act that's taken in the heat of battle.

Political conflict rests to a very large extent on a universal ignorance of consequences, as the people who are benefited by any particular act or policy are rarely those who struggled for it, and the people who are injured are rarely those who opposed it.

From a common-sense standpoint, you're probably on the right road. The problem is, you're opening a can of worms you might not be able to shut. That might cause more problems than it solves.

Welfare policies never attain those - allegedly beneficial - ends which the government and the self-styled progressives who advocated them wanted to attain, but - on the contrary - bring about a state of affairs which - from the very point of view of the government and its supporters - is even more unsatisfactory than the previous state of affairs they wanted to 'improve.'

The thing you don't dream about as a kid is all the peripheral stuff that comes with success.

I think the first thing is to recognize a mistake that Obama made. And others have made in thinking that you can revolutionize a system that's unbelievably complex and interlinked, one-sixth of the economy. That was a mistake because whenever you change one thing, it changes 80 other things, and now if you're changing everything at once, you have no idea what the outcome is going to be and you get all of these unintended side effects.

Social evolution may be the result of intention, but it rarely, if ever, produces the result intended.

Men are in fact, quite unable to control their own inventions; they at best develop adaptability to the new conditions those inventions create.

There are more consequences to a shipwreck than the underwriters notice.

What an immense mass of evil must result...from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen.

Is there a word for the moment you win tug-of-war? When the weight gives, and all that extra rope comes hurtling towards you, how even though you've won, you still end up with muddy knees and burns on your hands? Is there a word for that? I wish there was.

I doubt if there is a single field of study so theoretical, so remote from what is laughingly called everyday life, that it may not one day produce something that will shake the world.