Quotes about danger
page 31

“Communist parties are both legal and illegal, and the illegal structure governs the legal. But legality is an enormous aid to the illegal conspiracy. It prevents forthright action against the chief criminals; it leads to roundabout persecution; it enables the Communist to deceive simple, generous-hearted, and gullible citizens, and it leads to dubiously legal actions from the government itself. The present half-legal, half-persecuted position of the Party and its members is not justice. It operates to eliminate one evil with another, both evils containing dangers to the Constitutional order.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Source: "Let the Record Speak" 1939, “The Truth about Communism” https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015051180423&view=1up&seq=5 (1948), p. 15-16

Justice, Evil, Heart

“A man who laughs will never be dangerous.”

Laurence Sterne book A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

The Passport, Versailles.
Original: (fr) Un homme qui rit, said the duke, ne sera jamais dangereux.
Source: A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768)

“We tend to forget that when we enter the sea, we’re entering a foreign environment. It’s not ours. We can’t breathe underwater. When we enter the sea, it’s a wilderness experience. In any wilderness experience, there are potential dangers to be involved in that environment. Luckily for us, the sea is a pretty benevolent place. Each year, millions of people enter the sea and come out unscratched and unscathed and oblivious to the notion that they’ve had a wilderness experience. But we all need to remember that, especially if we go in areas where large predators such as white shark live.”

George H. Burgess (1949) American biologist

Source: George Burgess on the Science of Shark Attacks https://www.outsideonline.com/1911871/george-burgess-science-shark-attacks (December 18, 2012)

People, Sea, Forgetting

“One of the most dangerous words is 'extremist'. A person who commits acts of violence is not an 'extremist'; he is a criminal. If he commits those acts of violence with the object of detaching part of the territory of the United Kingdom and attaching it to a foreign country, he is an enemy under arms. There is the world of difference between a citizen who commits a crime, in the belief, however mistaken, that he is thereby helping to preserve the integrity of his country and his right to remain a subject of his sovereign, and a person, be he citizen or alien, who commits a crime with the intention of destroying that integrity and rendering impossible that allegiance. The former breaches the peace; the latter is executing an act of war. The use of the word 'extremist' of either or both conveys a dangerous untruth: it implies that both hold acceptable opinions and seek permissible ends, only that they carry them to 'extremes'. Not so: the one is a lawbreaker; the other is an enemy.The same purpose, that of rendering friend and foe indistinguishable, is achieved by references to the 'impartiality' of the British troops and to their function as 'keeping the peace.'”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

The British forces are in Northern Ireland because an avowed enemy is using force of arms to break down lawful authority in the province and thereby seize control. The army cannot be 'impartial' towards an enemy, nor between the aggressor and the aggressed: they are not glorified policemen, restraining two sets of citizens who might otherwise do one another harm, and duty bound to show no 'partiality' towards one lawbreaker rather than another. They are engaged in defeating an armed attack upon the state. Once again, the terminology is designed to obliterate the vital difference between friend and enemy, loyal and disloyal.Then there are the 'no-go' areas which have existed for the past eighteen months. It would be incredible, if it had not actually happened, that for a year and a half there should be areas in the United Kingdom where the Queen's writ does not run and where the citizen is protected, if protected at all, by persons and powers unknown to the law. If these areas were described as what they are—namely, pockets of territory occupied by the enemy, as surely as if they had been captured and held by parachute troops—then perhaps it would be realised how preposterous is the situation. In fact the policy of refraining from the re-establishment of civil government in these areas is as wise as it would be to leave enemy posts undisturbed behind one's lines.
Source: Speech to the South Buckinghamshire Conservative Women's Annual Luncheon in Beaconsfield (19 March 1971), from Reflections of a Statesman. The Writings and Speeches of Enoch Powell (1991), pp. 487-488

War, World, Peace, Help

“Have you ever wondered, perhaps, why opinions which the majority of people quite naturally hold are, if anyone dares express them publicly, denounced as 'controversial, 'extremist', 'explosive', 'disgraceful', and overwhelmed with a violence and venom quite unknown to debate on mere political issues? It is because the whole power of the aggressor depends upon preventing people from seeing what is happening and from saying what they see.The most perfect, and the most dangerous, example of this process is the subject miscalled, and deliberately miscalled, 'race.'”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

The people of this country are told that they must feel neither alarm nor objection to a West Indian, African and Asian population which will rise to several millions being introduced into this country. If they do, they are 'prejudiced', 'racialist'... A current situation, and a future prospect, which only a few years ago would have appeared to everyone not merely intolerable but frankly incredible, has to be represented as if welcomed by all rational and right-thinking people. The public are literally made to say that black is white. Newspapers like the Sunday Times denounce it as 'spouting the fantasies of racial purity' to say that a child born of English parents in Peking is not Chinese but English, or that a child born of Indian parents in Birmingham is not English but Indian. It is even heresy to assert the plain fact that the English are a white nation. Whether those who take part know it or not, this process of brainwashing by repetition of manifest absurdities is a sinister and deadly weapon. In the end, it renders the majority, who are marked down to be the victims of violence or revolution or tyranny, incapable of self-defence by depriving them of their wits and convincing them that what they thought was right is wrong. The process has already gone perilously far, when political parties at a general election dare not discuss a subject which results from and depends on political action and which for millions of electors transcends all others in importance; or when party leaders can be mesmerised into accepting from the enemy the slogans of 'racialist' and 'unChristian' and applying them to lifelong political colleagues...In the universities, we are told that education and the discipline ought to be determined by the students, and that the representatives of the students ought effectively to manage the institutions. This is nonsense—manifest, arrant nonsense; but it is nonsense which it is already obligatory for academics and journalists, politicians and parties, to accept and mouth upon pain of verbal denunciation and physical duress.We are told that the economic achievement of the Western countries has been at the expense of the rest of the world and has impoverished them, so that what are called the 'developed' countries owe a duty to hand over tax-produced 'aid' to the governments of the undeveloped countries. It is nonsense—manifest, arrant nonsense; but it is nonsense with which the people of the Western countries, clergy and laity, but clergy especially—have been so deluged and saturated that in the end they feel ashamed of what the brains and energy of Western mankind have done, and sink on their knees to apologise for being civilised and ask to be insulted and humiliated.Then there is the 'civil rights' nonsense. In Ulster we are told that the deliberate destruction by fire and riot of areas of ordinary property is due to the dissatisfaction over allocation of council houses and opportunities for employment. It is nonsense—manifest, arrant nonsense; but that has not prevented the Parliament and government of the United Kingdom from undermining the morale of civil government in Northern Ireland by imputing to it the blame for anarchy and violence.Most cynically of all, we are told, and told by bishops forsooth, that communist countries are the upholders of human rights and guardians of individual liberty, but that large numbers of people in this country would be outraged by the spectacle of cricket matches being played here against South Africans. It is nonsense—manifest, arrant nonsense; but that did not prevent a British Prime Minister and a British Home Secretary from adopting it as acknowledged fact.
Source: The "enemy within" speech during the 1970 general election campaign; speech to the Turves Green Girls School, Northfield, Birmingham (13 June 1970), from Still to Decide (1972), pp. 36-37

People, Nature, Dependency, Perfection

“Too large a tax cut, of course, could result in inflation and insufficient future revenues--but the greatest danger is a tax cut too little or too late to be effective.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York

Future

“The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches. It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain. And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways. It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him. That prince is highly esteemed who conveys this impression of himself, and he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against; for, provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people, he can only be attacked with difficulty.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 19; translated by W. K. Marriot

Women, Men, Hate, People

“I'm interested in truth, I like science. But truth's a menace, science is a public danger. As dangerous as it's been beneficent. … It's curious … to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress. They seemed to imagine that it could go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else. Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value; all the rest was secondary and subordinate. True, ideas were beginning to change even then. Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasise from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. And, of course, whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered. Still, in spite of everything, unrestricted scientific resarch was still permitted. People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were sovereign goods. Right up to the time of the Nine Years' War. That made them change their tune all right. What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you? That was when science first began to be controlled — after the Nine Years' War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We've gone on controlling ever since. It hasn't been very good for truth, of course. But it's been very good for happiness. One can't have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Source: Brave New World (1932), Mustapha Mond, in Ch. 16

Life, War, Happiness, People

“[A] danger, in its ultimate results scarcely less disastrous than pestilence and famine...distracts that country [Ireland]. A portion of its population is attempting to sever the constitutional tie which unites it to Great Britain in that bond which has favoured the power and prosperity of both. It is to be hoped that all men of light and leading will resist this destructive doctrine. The strength of this nation depends on the unity of feeling which should pervade the United Kingdom and its widespread dependencies.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Source: Election address; letter to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Marlborough (8 March 1880), quoted in The Times (9 March 1880), p. 8

Men, Hope, Feeling, Light

“The fabric of our prosperity is so artificial, we have raised such a vast edifice of industry and manufacture and wealth within so narrow an area, that the progress of a hostile army through our country would shatter our prosperity with a ruin which centuries would not repair. (Hear, hear.) In proportion to the danger must be our precaution. (Cheers.) We have to protect ourselves.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Source: Defending increased naval expenditure; speech in Bristol (22 April 1889), quoted in The Times (24 April 1889), p. 6

Hostility, Country, Wealth

“This Administration has been looking hard at exactly what civil defense can and cannot do. It cannot be obtained cheaply. It cannot give an assurance of blast protection that will be proof against surprise attack or guaranteed against obsolescence or destruction. And it cannot deter a nuclear attack. We will deter an enemy from making a nuclear attack only if our retaliatory power is so strong and so invulnerable that he knows he would be destroyed by our response. If we have that strength, civil defense is not needed to deter an attack. If we should ever lack it, civil defense would not be an adequate substitute. But this deterrent concept assumes rational calculations by rational men. And the history of this planet, and particularly the history of the 20th century, is sufficient to remind us of the possibilities of an irrational attack, a miscalculation, an accidental war, for a war of escalation in which the stakes by each side gradually increase to the point of maximum danger which cannot be either foreseen or deterred. It is on this basis that civil defense can be readily justifiable--as insurance for the civilian population in case of an enemy miscalculation. It is insurance we trust will never be needed--but insurance which we could never forgive ourselves for foregoing in the event of catastrophe. Once the validity of this concept is recognized, there is no point in delaying the initiation of a nation-wide long-range program of identifying present fallout shelter capacity and providing shelter in new and existing structures. Such a program would protect millions of people against the hazards of radioactive fallout in the event of large-scale nuclear attack. Effective performance of the entire program not only requires new legislative authority and more funds, but also sound organizational arrangements.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1961, Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress

Men, War, People, Making love

“Here life is, moves; faintly. A wrist. The faint throb of blood, precise, miraculous... And they talk of dying! The blood delicately descending and ascending: making an arm. Being an arm. The warm flesh, the dim slender flesh filled with life, slenderer than a miracle, frailer... These are the shoulders through which fell the world. The dangerous shoulders of Eve, in god's entire garden newly strolling.”

E.E. Cummings Him

Him (1927)

Life, God, World, Making love

“There is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than in philosophical debates to endeavour to refute any hypothesis by a pretext of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads us into absurdities, 'tis certainly false; but 'tis not certain an opinion is false, because 'tis of dangerous consequence.”

David Hume book A Treatise of Human Nature

Part 3, Section 2
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Book 2: Of the passions

Religion, Falseness

“If it doesn’t change, we quit. Why do we have to stay? It’s possibly dangerous for our sovereignty. Many are out, they didn’t sign it. Why would Brazil have to stay? To be politically correct? [...] We won’t be able to reforest an area the size of Rio de Janeiro.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

About the Paris Agreement, during a broadcast on social media on 12 December 2018. Bolsonaro says Brazil may “quit” Paris Agreement http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/politica/noticia/2018-12/bolsonaro-says-brazil-may-quit-paris-agreement. Agência Brasil (13 December 2019). 2018

Change

“History demonstrates that it is a dangerous delusion to suppose that the destinies of continents and of the world community in general can somehow be managed from one single capital.”

Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) 1st President of Russia and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR

Address https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1994-12-06-9412050445-story.html to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Budapest opposing the expansion of NATO (6 December 1994) 1990s

World, History, Communication

“If pastors and theologians are asked to reflect and follow the direction indicated by the Holy Father, they are certainly not obliged to think that the proposed approach, with the preambles supporting it, are exempt from danger, nor that the advice given is appropriate. They are even fully justified in drawing the attention of the Holy See of the bishops to the serious ambiguities of the underlying doctrine and on the dangers of the proposed pastoral care.”

Louis-Marie de Blignières (1949) French traditionalist Catholic priest

Extensive Article on the problems of Amoris Laetitia -- English translation of the French original https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/09/extensive-article-on-problems-of-amoris.html

Support, Thinking, Drawing

“Take a serious look at yourself. Ask yourself questions about your mood, the way you view the world and people, think about your mistakes and the dangers they unleash. Today the character of a person determines whether he can exercise influence and authority, far more than all the minds on this earth. As you know, this is all the more true in Belgium, and Belgians want to see in their leader the qualities they will never want from themselves.”

Leopold I of Belgium (1790–1865) German prince who became the first King of the Belgians

https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-2-0 Leopold I In a letter to his son Prince Leopold II

People, World, Way, Exercises

“We have entered upon a period of struggle. Our national fault is that too much softness has crept into our councils, and we imagine that great national dangers can be conjured by a plentiful administration of platitudes and rose-water.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech to the inaugural dinner of the National Conservative Club in Willis's Rooms (5 March 1887), quoted in The Times (7 March 1887), p. 7
1880s

Imagination, Water

“I believe that any repeal of the Union [with Ireland] or any substantial tampering with it is fraught with danger to this country. That has always been the opinion of the Conservative party and always will remain so. It is granting a separate government and separate executive. ... The result is that the [Protestant] minority will not only have laws passed of which they disapprove, but they will have to depend on the toleration and good will of their enemies for the common privileges of civilised life and securities.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech to a banquet of the Merchant Taylors' Company, London (10 May 1886), quoted in The Times (11 May 1886), p. 12
1880s

Life, Law, Dependency, Country

“Englishmen are moderate, careful to avoid unnecessary offence, slow to come to a dangerous and violent conclusion, and tenacious and resolute when the conclusion has once been arrived at.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1878/apr/08/message-from-the-queen-army-reserve#column_836 in the House of Lords (8 April 1878) 1870s

“People, in general, are unaware of the danger they are in, that with no way to personally go into space, no need for their labor in the face of robotic artificial intelligence, and no way to gain an ownership share in the industry, they will be left behind both economically and politically, unless steps are taken during the startup period.”

Sheyene Gerardi Venezuelan actor and model

[NASA CLASS Announces Collaboration With Actress Sheyene Gerardi, http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=38c46884-5abc-491a-89aa-c9bb0b71195c]

People, Way, Intelligence, Personality

“One lesson of history is that every gain has its potential loss. The highest human achievements carry the danger of pride, and pride can lead blindly to disaster, just as failure can fortify the determination and so lead slowly towards triumph.”

Geoffrey Blainey (1930) Australian historian

The Great Seesaw: A New View of the Western World, 1750-2000 (1988)

History, Failure, Loss

“Perfectionism is dangerous because there is nothing after it, just a museum.”

Alber Elbaz (1961–2021) Israeli fashion designer

Source: British Vogue, 2013, https://www.vogue.co.uk/video/watch/alber-elbaz

“I've been through two hurricanes; I was in Hurricane Carla as a kid in Houston, and I was really excited during hurricane time, because you're out there on the Gulf and it's dangerous, and I was like, "This is cool!"”

Ron White (1956) American comedian

Till shit started hitting our house, then I was like, "FUCK THIS!"
They Call Me Tater Salad

Time

“Since the imperfect rules of the marketplace actually reward dangerous risk taking, the only thing that could prevent this lethal gamble is effective government regulation.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

Free Lunch (2007)

“A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.”

John le Carré book The Honourable Schoolboy

The Honourable Schoolboy (1977)

World

“The question what to believe is perhaps the most momentous that anyone can put to himself. Our beliefs are not to be classed among the luxuries, but among the necessaries of existence. They become particularly important in times of trouble. They are like the life-boats carried by ocean ships. As long as the sea is smooth and there is every appearance of a prosperous voyage, the passengers seldom take note of the boats or inquire into their sea-worthiness. But when the storm breaks and danger approaches, then the capacity of the boats and their soundness become matters of the first importance.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 9 : Ethical Outlook
Life and Destiny (1913)

Life, Question, Appearance, Relation ships

“Basically, I exploited the phenomenon of the technician’s often blind devotion to his task. Because of what seems to be the moral neutrality of technology, these people were without any scruples about their activities. The more technical the world imposed on us by the war, the more dangerous was this indifference of the technician to the direct consequences of his anonymous activities.”

Albert Speer book Inside the Third Reich

Source: Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs (1970), p. 310

War, People, World, Indifference

“Today’s fashion magazines may carry an article about the dangers of anorexia while bombarding its readers with images of emaciated young bodies representing the height of beauty and desirability.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

As quoted in Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2014), p.34

Beauty, Fashion

“Lord yes, in a certain sense it was a preventive war, [motivated by] the constant threat of attack, the greater likelihood of its inevitability in the future, and by the military's claim: today war is still possible without defeat, but not in two years! Yes, the generals. It could only have been avoided by a rapprochement with England, that is still my conviction. But after we had decided for a [common] policy with Austria, we could not desert her in such danger.”

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1856–1921) German chancellor during World War I

Remarks to Conrad Haussmann (24 February 1918), quoted in Konrad H. Jarauschl, ‘The Illusion of Limited War: Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg's Calculated Risk, July 1914’, Central European History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), p. 48

War, Motivation, Sense, Future

“The centre of all our efforts in caring for the sick must be the person himself or herself. Our attention must be directed to each person at this particular moment of their journey of life. In our modern world, and even within our health system, we face the danger of depersonalisation. Too easily, we can focus on procedures and techniques, on the task at hand and the hoped-for outcome. The challenge is to remain focused on the particular person before us, on their physical well-being and also on their emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. It is their particular fears and hopes, struggles and frailties that we are called to receive and to carry with them.”

Albert LeGatt (1953) Catholic bishop

World Day of the Sick https://www.archsaintboniface.ca/media/Archeveque-Archbishop/World-Day-of-the-Sick-2015_1.pdf (February 11, 2015)

Life, Health, World, Fear

“If somebody did something bad to me or was rude to me, I will never forget. But if somebody's nice to me, I will also never forget. This means people think I'm a very dangerous woman who never forgets.”

Youn Yuh-jung (1947) South Korean actress

Lauren, Ro, Living Like a Legend with Minari’s Yuh-Jung Youn, A24 Films, 2021-04-13, 2021-06-08 https://a24films.com/notes/2021/04/how-to-live-well-according-to-yuh-jung-youn-1,

People, Thinking, Forgetting

“Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

Effort, Success, Training

“When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Motivational, Deep, Success, Inspirational

“We are in danger of forgetting that God is not only a comfort but a joy. He is the source of all pleasures; he is fun and laughter, and we are meant to enjoy him.”

Joy Davidman (1915–1960) American poet

Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandment

God, Pleasure, Laughter, Joy

“We must never substitute a doctrine of Black supremacy for white supremacy. For the doctrine of Black supremacy is as dangerous as white supremacy. God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men but God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where all men will live together as brothers”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

"Social Justice and the Emerging New Age" address at the Herman W. Read Fieldhouse, Western Michigan University (18 December 1963)
1960s

Men, God, Freedom

“People without any form of love are the most dangerous. You can find them everywhere, beware of appearances.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Le persone prive di qualsiasi forma d'amore sono le più pericolose. Le trovi ovunque, diffida delle apparenze.
Source: prevale.net

Love, People, Appearance

“I consider Xi Jinping the most dangerous enemy of open societies in the world.”

George Soros (1930) Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Tweet 16 August 2021 https://twitter.com/georgesoros/status/1427244353714544644

World

“It was a dangerous area, for certain. There were saloons, prostitutes, everything. The real Wild West. There was no law to speak of; everyone carried weapons, and they used them. Gambling was rampant, and crime increased with the growing population.”

James Doolittle (1896–1993) United States Air Force Medal of Honor recipient

On the memories of his childhood place of Nome, Alaska in an 1993 interview, "The Extraordinary Life Of Aviation Legend Jimmy Doolittle" https://allthatsinteresting.com/jimmy-doolittle

Law

“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

1880s, Letter to Mary Gladstone (1881)

Faith, Law

“I have extensive management experience in crisis situations, accumulated experience, and knowledge in the security and defense system. I have experience in overcoming the economic crisis. The current dangers and the accumulated experience and knowledge practically coincide”

Robert Kocharyan (1954) second President of Armenia

Excerpts from 2021 keynote speech on formation of 'Armenia' alliance

Knowledge

“Though it seemed so beautiful, the world around us was eternally dangerous. The price of spiritual freedom, we learnt, was eternal vigilance. Such a high price for so long.”

Tim Winton book The Turning

Short story, 'Damaged Goods' - p.60
Short stories, The Turning (2004)

World, Beauty, Freedom

“By far the most dangerous animal on the planet was an invasive species of ape.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (2016), Chapter 17 (p. 386)

Animals

“History as inspiration and ideology has a built-in tendency to become self-justifying myth. Nothing is a more dangerous blindfold than this, as the history of modern nations and nationalisms demonstrates.”

Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) British academic historian and Marxist historiographer

Chap. 3 : What Can History Tell Us about Contemporary Society?
On History (1997)

History

“Too much isolation can be a danger to you and your health. It is a hazard to the common people, as well as a benefit to those who know how to use their free time.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People, Health, Time

“Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

on Twitter https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/1250292126643941376?s=20, Apr 14, 2020 COVID-19 pandemic 2020

Health, World

“Magic, or rather magical power, comprehends two things, a science and a force: without the force the science is nothing, or rather it is a danger.”

Eliphas Levi (1810–1875) French writer

Miscellaneous Quotes On the Subjects of Magic and Magicians
Source: Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magi Part I: The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic By Eliphas Levi (Alphonse Louis Constant), Translated by A. E. Waite, England, Rider & Company, England, 1896, Introduction p. 11

Science

“When a scientific principle puts on the toga of social dignity, it turns itself into a bell or a parrot; such phantoms have always been the most dangerous enemies of reason.”

Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981) Croatian writer

Aristocrats of Spirit, in: Eseji IV, p.76 (Zora, 1963)
Essays

“Few campaigns are more dangerous than emotional calls for proscription rather than thought.”

Stephen Jay Gould book An Urchin in the Storm

"Integrity and Mr. Rifkin", p. 238
An Urchin in the Storm (1987)

“Quick riches are more dangerous than poverty.”

Napoleon Hill book Think and Grow Rich

Source: Think and Grow Rich (1938)

“Brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value. Any human organization can be rendered useless, impotent, a danger to itself, by selectively removing its best minds while carefully leaving the stupid ones in place.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 4 (p. 37)

Stupidity

“Secularism as principle and practice is in danger, but I do not see it falling anytime soon: India embodies tolerance and pluralism in its very essence, and I do not believe that forces of hatred can permanently overcome our fundamental secularism.”

Shashi Tharoor (1956) Indian politician, diplomat, author

Source: "Secularism as principle and practice in India is in ‘danger’: Shashi Tharoor" https://indianexpress.com/article/india/shashi-tharoor-new-book-securalism-religion-6912107/, The Indian Express, November 1, 2020.

“A complete person, if necessary, knows as to show his essence as an innocent angel or a dangerous devil.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Una persona completa, all'occorrenza, sa mostrare la sua essenza di innocente angelo o pericoloso diavolo.
Source: prevale.net

Angels, Personality

“Last year, like many others, I too made the mistake of scoffing at this post-September 11th rhetoric, dismissing it as foolish and arrogant. But I’ve realized...It’s actually a canny recruitment drive for a misconceived, dangerous war.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Source: Articles, Come September (29 Sep 2002)

War

“We are a sovereign country so we must get out from this crisis by ourselves. We must draw away danger with our own hands. History would never forgive the present generation for wasting this chance.”

Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923–2014) Polish military officer and politician

Source: Excerpts of Martial law speech (14 December 1981)

History, Forgiveness, Chance, Drawing

“Take it from me, underwater deep sea diver extraordinaire, driving with my Mom on the freeway is far more dangerous.”

Tania Raymonde (1988) American actress

Source: Interview: Tania Raymonde, Star Of Deep Blue Sea 3 https://thedailyjaws.com/blog/2020/7/7/interview-tania-raymonde-star-of-deep-blue-sea-3 (July 27, 2020)

Moms, Sea

“Are we in danger of becoming a nation of cry-babies? Are we becoming a people who panic at the least sign at adversity? Are we becoming a people with a faith not in God or in ourselves, but in a paternalistic government to shelter us from all of life's hardships and misfortunes?”

Irving Kristol (1920–2009) American columnist, journalist, and writer

Source: Memorandum to Robert T. Hartmann https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0204/1511691.pdf (1976)

Life, God, People, Faith

“You think we are in danger there?”

Michael Moorcock book The King of the Swords

Source: Book 3, Chapter 3 “The Conjunction of the Million Spheres” (pp. 379-380), Corum, The King of the Swords (1971)
Context: “Danger? It depends what you regard as dangerous. Some wisdom may be dangerous to one man and not to another.”

Thinking

“It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading.”

Mike Tyson (1966) American boxer

Miscellaneous
Source: https://books.google.ca/books?id=ww3ikzftnNsC&pg=PA82&dq=it%27s+dangerous+to+know+how+to+read+and+not+how+to+interpret+what+you%27re+reading&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOssCd-cr0AhWSHc0KHTQvDuQQ6AF6BAgCEAI#v=onepage&q=it's%20dangerous%20to%20know%20how%20to%20read%20and%20not%20how%20to%20interpret%20what%20you're%20reading&f=false Ebony September 1995

Reading

“The absence of a decision could result in an impetuous, dangerous development of a situation which has got out of any control. There is no ideal solution in such circumstances. The only thing is to find the optimal solution, "a lesser evil."”

Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923–2014) Polish military officer and politician

Source: Speech at Kansas State University (11 March 1996)

Optimism, Decision, Evil

“Burying nuclear, chemical and solid Israeli waste poses danger to the environment and to people's health.”

Mohammad Shtayyeh (1958) Palestinian politician

Source: Mohammad Shtayyeh (2021) cited in: " PA calls for probing Israel's disposal of hazardous nuclear waste in the occupied territories https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211208-pa-calls-for-probing-israels-disposal-of-hazardous-nuclear-waste-in-the-occupied-territories/" in Middle East Monitor, 8 December 2021.

People, Health

“When we are combating a deadly virus & vaccine hesitancy, this kind of rhetoric is dangerous. Showing proof of vaccination is not slavery or birtherism. We are too close to give ground to COVID. Science is science. It's pretty simple - Vax up and mask up.”

Kim Janey (1965) American politician

Source: 3 August 2021 reply https://twitter.com/andreaforboston/status/1422642209938186245 by Andrea Campbell

Science

“[I]t is largely because I find all exercises of power by some over others—even with what passes for the latter's consent—are and must remain deeply problematic, that I find all legitimating theories not simply amusing in their pretensions but... as dangerous as they are convincing.”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Source: Constitutional Choices (1985), The Nature of the Enterprise, The Futile Search for Legitimacy

Exercises

“Nothing is more dangerous to good government than great power in improper hands.”

Calvin Coolidge book The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

Source: The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge (1929)

“A congregation is supposed to assess a person's mental health during formation. It is a dangerous signal if a nun commits suicide at the slightest provocation. We have to reassess our system's effectiveness.”

Paul Antony Mullassery (1960)

Source: Young Nun´s Suicide Shocks The Church In Kerala https://www.ucanews.com/story-archive/?post_name=/2008/08/12/young-nuns-suicide-shocks-the-church-in-kerala&post_id=49014 (12 August 2008)

Health, Suicide, Personality

“We had cruise ships tell us that they wouldn't come in (to United States Virgin Islands) if we had (COVID-19) positivity rates over 3%. And now we have a 20% positivity rate and they still want to come in. We are more of a danger to them than they are to us.”

Albert Bryan (1968) Governor of the United States Virgin Islands

Source: Albert Bryan (2022) cited in: " Diverted cruise ships means loss of revenue for V.I. businesses http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/diverted-cruise-ships-means-loss-of-revenue-for-v-i-businesses/article_2127974d-4e20-5b00-a104-704d85c93c34.html" in The Virgin Islands Daily News, 11 January 2022.

“Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments – and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

Education, Religion

“The evils and dangers of which I speak are of slow growth, and their cure can only be gradual. Unless Great Britain is able by a united and well-instructed effort to grapple with her economic problems, and unless she is worthy to be the heart of her world-wide establishment, you here in this hall today will live long enough to lose not only your inheritance, but your livelihood. The continuance of our present confusion and disintegration will reduce us within a generation, and perhaps sooner, to the degree of States like Holland and Portugal, which nursed valiant races and held great possessions, but were stripped of them in the crush and competition of the world. That would be a melancholy end to all the old glories and recent triumphs.”

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

Source: Rectorial address ("The present decline of Parliamentary government in Great Britain") to Edinburgh University (5 March 1931), quoted in The Times (6 March 1931), p. 19

World, Problem, Effort, Evil

“Stick to it, boy,
Through the thick and the thin of it!
Work for the joy
That is born of the din of it.
Failures beset you,
But don't let them fret you;
Dangers are lurking,
But just keep on working.
If it's worthwhile and you're sure of the right of it,
Stick to it, boy, and make a real fight of it!”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Stick to It, first stanza.
Source: The Passing Throng (1923)

Boy, Failure, Joy, Fight

“There will always be something to do, my boy;
There will always be wrongs to right;
There will always be need for a manly breed
And men unafraid to fight.
There will always be honor to guard, my boy;
There will always be hills to climb,
And tasks to do, and battles new
From now to the end of time.There will always be dangers to face, my boy;
There will always be goals to take;
Men shall be tried, when the roads divide,
And proved by the choice they make.
There will always be burdens to bear, my boy;
There will always be need to pray;
There will always be tears through the future years,
As loved ones are borne away.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: The Path to Home (1919), p.119 - There Will Always Be Something To Do, stanzas 1 and 2.

Love, Men, Boy, Tear

“One of the most dangerous forms of human error is forgetting what one is trying to achieve. In the gulf crisis, it is crucial that we look beyond our anger at Saddam and remind ourselves of precisely what U.S. interests are in the crisis and what we seek to accomplish.”

Paul Nitze (1907–2004) American government official

Source: War Whether We Need It Or Not? (1991)

Error, Anger, Forgetting

“A little knowledge is said to be a dangerous thing, but it is not dangerous to the imagination. Knowledge is to the imagination what fuel is to flame. A little feeds it; a great deal extinguishes it.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: The Poet's Diary (1904), p. 158.

Imagination, Knowledge

“We may lay it down as a rule that the older the exercise of any power, the more benign it will appear, and the more recent its assumption, the more unnatural and even dangerous it will seem.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The New Industrial State

Source: The New Industrial State (1967), Chapter V, Section 4, p. 58 (1985)

Exercises, Appearance

“I have been opposed to vivisection for many years; not just because it is unbelievably barbaric and unforgivably cruel but also because it is worthless, wasteful, inaccurate, uninformative and dangerously misleading. The cruelty is indefensible and an affront to human dignity, but in a desperate attempt to justify their evil practices many vivisectors still claim that what they do helps save human lives. They are lying. The truth is that animal experiments kill people and animal researchers are responsible for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children every year; they are also directly responsible for a massive amount of human suffering.”

Vernon Coleman (1946) British doctor

"Why Animal Experiments Must Stop" (1991), in animalliberationfront.com http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Animal%20Testing/Vivisection/waems.htm.

Death, Women, Men, Children

“She is a mortal danger to all men. She is beautiful without knowing it, and possesses charms that she’s not even aware of. She is like a trap set by nature - a sweet perfumed rose in whose petals Cupid lurks in ambush! Anyone who has seen her smile has known perfection. She instills grace in every common thing and divinity in every careless gesture. Venus in her shell was never so lovely, and Diana in the forest never so graceful as my Lady when she strides through Paris!”

Edmond Rostand (1868–1918) French writer

Source: Cyrano de Bergerac

Love, Men, Smile, Beauty

“The only proper course of action regarding humanity was to leave it alone, and, if possible, isolate it. Just as one would handle any other sophont that was quite irremediably and dangerously insane.”

Charles E. Gannon (1960) American novelist

Source: Trial by Fire (2014), Chapter 40 (p. 577)

“Sometimes you have to do something dangerous to get death's attention.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

Death

“The one thing that is more dangerous than true ignorance is the illusion of understanding.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 57, “Becoming Philosophical” (p. 226)

Understanding

“A common thief with a gun in his hand isn’t half as dangerous as an engineer with a stick of dynamite.”

James Blish book Black Easter

Source: Black Easter (1968), Chapter 12 (p. 110)

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

The Bonhoeffer Reader https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Bonhoeffer_Reader/CNZgAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA766, p. 766 Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), On Stupidity

Stupidity

“We should all be getting insanity danger pay.”

Tim Powers (1952) American writer

Source: Stolen Skies (2022), Chapter 7, “Spiritual Danger Pay” (p. 89)

“We should also have national red-flag laws so that a parent, a teacher, a counselor can flag for a court that a child, a student, a patient is exhibiting violent tendencies, threatening classmates, or experiencing suicidal thoughts that makes them a danger to themselves or to others.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Remarks on Gun Violence in America

Law, Parent, Suicide, Teachers

“When I think about it, the mission was not a highly dangerous affair. You could do something about it if there was a problem. But, looking back, I’d say we were pretty lucky.”

Richard E. Cole (1915–2019) career officer in the United States Air Force and participant in the Doolittle Raid (1915-2019)

"Dick Cole: The Last Doolittle Raider" https://veteransbreakfastclub.org/dick-cole-the-last-doolittle-raider/ (2017)

Problem, Thinking

“Sensing the approaching danger, the snail flees. But in a world of snail paces, the conch is something of a Ferrari. It calls for desperate measures. Exhausted by the effort of its last-ditch attempt, the tulip snail is slowly... gunned... down.”

David Attenborough (1926) British broadcaster and naturalist

"Tidal Seas"
Blue Planet (2001)

World, Sense, Effort

“I’ll tell you, nothing is so dangerous as ambition in a man who cares not who stands in his way.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The True Game, The Flight of Mavin Manyshaped (1985), Chapter 3 (p. 48)

Way

“Nakedness was dangerous to the social order, she thought, because it revealed too much reality.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 7, “What Is to Be Done?” (p. 395)

Reality

“For this, if for no other reason, degeneration of creative ability in America has had ample support, and what nobility our society might still have is in danger of being submerged in overwhelming tides of rising conformity.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

Support

“Servility increases—already a seemingly unguarded danger to democracy not only in art and architecture and religion but in all phases of life.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

Life, Religion, Art, Democracy

“I think it's terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people's expectations. I think they generally produce their worst work when they do that.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

People, Thinking

“Manipulation is an art, but it is a double-edged knife and can be a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands.”

Titon Rahmawan

Art

“Repression is as dangerous as corruption. Both occur as a form of abuse of authority and power.”

Titon Rahmawan

“Courage is when we can overcome the fear and apprehension that pervades our hearts and minds when we find no other way out except by facing danger.”

Titon Rahmawan

Fear, Way, Courage, Heart

“Those who take bold steps know what risks they face. It could mean difficulty, uncertainty, danger, pain and even death. But a coward chooses the opposite path, even though he knows that the path he takes is not without risk. Running will never solve the problem.”

Titon Rahmawan

Death, Pain, Problem

“It is ironic that when the priority is personal safety, the world becomes a very dangerous world. It becomes a world in which everyone is doing things for their own individual best interests. It becomes a society of control, strategy and zero-sum games.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

World, Game, Personality

“There are very bad indiduals. They are liars, cowards and petty. They try to hurt you in any way because they can't stand that you are better than them. They are the most dangerous because, on top of that, they pretend to be your friends.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Esistono individui molto cattivi. Sono bugiardi, codardi e meschini. Cercano di farti del male in qualsiasi modo perché non sopportano che tu sia migliore di loro. Sono i più pericolosi perché, oltretutto, fingono di esserti amici.
Source: prevale.net

Way, Hurt

“Only difficulties, obstacles and challenges will force you to keep moving. Keep changing and stay alert, because there are so many dangers out there.”

Titon Rahmawan

Change

This quote waiting for review.

“The danger is that a moment may come when we forget that school existed to think about what no business can afford to ask.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Cuando la escuela dejó de pensar. By José Baroja. (2026b, mayo 25). Le Monde Diplomatique. https://www.lemondediplomatique.cl/cuando-la-escuela-dejo-de-pensar-por-jose-baroja.html

School, Business, Thinking, Forgetting

Quotes about danger page 31

Quotes about danger
page 31