“The final outcome of benevolent, informed, and intelligent decisions may turn out to be disastrous. But choices must be made; dies must be cast.”

— Herman Kahn

The Magnum Opus; On Thermonuclear War

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The final outcome of benevolent, informed, and intelligent decisions may turn out to be disastrous. But choices must be…" by Herman Kahn?

Herman Kahn 27

American futurist 1922–1983

Related quotes

“A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge. We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question.”

Grace Hopper (1906–1992) American computer scientist and United States Navy officer

The Wit and Wisdom of Grace Hopper (1987)
Context: We're flooding people with information. We need to feed it through a processor. A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge. We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question.

“If, in the worst possible scenario, we leave the European Union without a deal, people must have the opportunity to reject that disastrous outcome, either through a public vote, or through parliamentary democracy.”

Leanne Wood (1971) Welsh Plaid Cymru politician

Plaid Cymru needs to earn trust of voters, Leanne Wood says https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-41679247, BBC News, 20 October 2017
2017

“I think when we make choices—for
each choice is individual of the choices we have made before—we must examine not
only our reasons for making them but what result they will have, and whether good people will be hurt by our decisions.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“You are given the free will, or choices in life; but you must be widely awake to make wise decisions.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“I've made a decision and now I must face the consequences.”

J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer

“What are the choices that we must make if we are now to succeed, and not to fail? […] Two types of choices seem to me to have been crucial to tipping their outcomes towards success or failure: long-term planning, and willingness to reconsider core values. On reflection, we can also recognize the crucial role of these same two choices for the outcomes of our individual lives. One of those choices has depended on the courage to practice long-term thinking, and to make bold, courageous, anticipatory decisions at a time when problems have become perceptible but before they have reached crisis proportions. […] The other crucial choice illuminated by the past involves the courage to make painful decisions about values. Which of the values that formerly served a society well can continue to be maintained under new changed circumstances? Which of these treasured values must instead be jettisoned and replaced with different approaches?”

Jared Diamond book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Source: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005), Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "Reasons for hope" (Penguin Books, 2011, pages 522-523, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.