“It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life.”

— Richard Feynman

Rogers Commission Report (1986)
Context: It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life. The estimates range from roughly 1 in 100 to 1 in 100,000. The higher figures come from the working engineers, and the very low figures from management. What are the causes and consequences of this lack of agreement? Since 1 part in 100,000 would imply that one could put a Shuttle up each day for 300 years expecting to lose only one, we could properly ask "What is the cause of management's fantastic faith in the machinery?"
We have also found that certification criteria used in Flight Readiness Reviews often develop a gradually decreasing strictness. The argument that the same risk was flown before without failure is often accepted as an argument for the safety of accepting it again. Because of this, obvious weaknesses are accepted again and again, sometimes without a sufficiently serious attempt to remedy them, or to delay a flight because of their continued presence.

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Richard Feynman 181

American theoretical physicist 1918–1988

William J. Bernstein (1948) economist

Source: The Four Pillars of Investing (2002), Chapter 7, Misbehavior, p. 177.

“Do not be quick in giving fatwa (religious verdict) but exercise restraint in managing your differences of opinions. Such differences shouldn’t be vehicle for the spread of hatred and disunity among the people.”

Salah Al Budair (1971) Imaam at Masjid al-Nabawi

Spilling of innocent blood is against Islam – Saudi Imam https://www.pressreader.com/nigeria/daily-trust/20160330/281616714503807 (30th Mar 2016)

“Life…is an enormous lottery: the prizes are few, the failures innumerable. Out of the sighs of one generation are kneaded the hopes of the next. That's life.”

Machado de Assis (1839–1908) Brazilian writer

A vida...é uma enorme loteria; os prêmios são poucos, os malogrados inúmeros, e com os suspiros de uma geração é que se amassam as esperanças de outra. Isto é a vida.
"Teoria do medalhão" (1881), first collected in Papéis avulses (1882); Jack Schmitt and Lorie Ishimatsu (trans.) The Devil's Church, and Other Stories (London: Grafton, 1987) p. 113.

“I know this in no way alleviates the enormous amounts of pain and loss experienced by those who have suffered from the tsunami, but I hope it can make a difference.”

Sandra Bullock (1964) American actress and producer

In a brief statement (4 January 2005), upon donating one million dollars to the relief efforts of the American Red Cross http://www.redcross.org/ in response to the tsunamis at the end of 2004. This was her second million dollar gift to the American Red Cross; she had also donated a million dollars after the terrorists attacks of September 11th, 2001.

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Attribution debunked in Langworth's Churchill by Himself. The earliest close match located by the Quote Investigator is from the 1953 book How to Say a Few Words by David Guy Powers.
Misattributed
Variant: Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Source: 1953, How to Say a Few Words by David Guy Powers, Quote p. 109, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. Referenced by Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/28/success

“Many unfortunate human situations unfold […] where people who face very bad options take desperate gambles, accepting a high probability of making things worse in exchange for a small hope of avoiding a large loss. Risk taking of this king often turns manageable failures into disasters.”

Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), Chapter 29, "The fourfold pattern", pages 318-319 (ISBN 9780141033570).

“The chief cause for the impending collapse of the world - the cause sufficient in and by itself - is the enormous growth of the human population: the human flood. The worst enemy of life is too much life: the excess of human life.”

Pentti Linkola (1932) Finnish ecologist

Can Life Prevail? :A Revolutionary Approach to the Environmental Crisis. UK: Arktos Media, 2nd Revised ed. (2011). ISBN 1907166637 (English translation of Voisiko elämä voittaa) page 122

“All stemmed from Quoyle's chief failure, a failure of normal appearance.”

Annie Proulx book The Shipping News

Source: The Shipping News (1993), P. 2

“No nation can become greater in which there are enormous masses condemned to the conditions of life of prehistoric humanity.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

“The League of Nations” speech in Milan (20 October 1918), p. 52
1920s, Mussolini as Revealed in his Political Speeches (November 1914—August 1923) (1923)

“The difference between a little money and no money at all is enormous…and the difference between a little money and an enormous amount of money is very slight.”

Thornton Wilder The Matchmaker

The Matchmaker (1954)

“It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life.”

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