“A leader leads,” Ragnar said, “and you can’t ask men to risk death if you’re not willing to risk it yourself.”

2015, Young African Leaders Initiative Presidential Summit Town Hall speech (August 2015)
Context: And the one thing I’ve learned, both in my personal life and in my political life, is that if you want more authority, then you also have to be more responsible. You can’t wear the crown if you can’t bear the cross. […] So my attitude is, if you want to participate then you have to recognize that you have broader responsibilities. […] And that is part of leadership. That’s true, by the way, for you individually as well. You have to be willing to take some risks and do some hard things in order to be a leader. A leader is not just a name, a title, and privileges and perks.

Source: Platform

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (2005)

1840s, The Young American (1844)

Address http://www.ted.com/talks/james_cameron_before_avatar_a_curious_boy.html/ to the 2010 TED conference (13 February 2010)
Context: Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality. … Don’t put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you. Don’t do that to yourself. Don’t bet against yourself. And take risk. NASA has this phrase that they like, "Failure is not an option." But failure has to be an option. In art and exploration, failure has to be an option. Because it is a leap of faith. And no important endeavour that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks. … In whatever you are doing, failure is an option. But fear is not.

Source: A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesberman/2014/04/20/the-three-essential-warren-buffett-quotes-to-live-by/ "The Three Essential Warren Buffett Quotes To Live By" forbes.com (20 April 2014)
Quotes from the press
Variant: Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.