“A preemptive action today, however well-justified, may come back with unwelcome consequences in the future.”
At a Labour Party conference in the UK, quoted in The Independent. "Clinton urges caution over Iraq as Bush is granted war powers" (3 October 2002) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/clinton-urges-caution-over-iraq-as-bush-is-granted-war-powers-607775.html
2000s
Context: A preemptive action today, however well-justified, may come back with unwelcome consequences in the future. And because … I've done this. I've ordered these kinds of actions — I don't care how precise your bombs and your weapons are, when you set them off, innocent people will die.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Bill Clinton 99
42nd President of the United States 1946Related quotes

"Economist Says Best Climate Fix A Tough Sell, But Worth It." http://www.npr.org/2014/02/11/271537401/economist-says-best-climate-fix-a-tough-sell-but-worth-it National Public Radio. February 11, 2014.
February 28, 1962, page 51.
Official Report of Proceedings of the Hong Kong Legislative Council

From his National Party Congress Speech in Durban on 15 August 1985
Source: The Sword or the Cross, Which Should be the Weapon of the Christian Militant? (1921), Ch.6 p. 97

Reported in Marshall Brown, Wit and Humor of Bench and Bar (1899), p. 67. Alternately reported as "Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done", reported in Jacob Morton Braude, The Complete Art of Public Speaking (1970), p. 84.