Quotes about danger
page 5

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow photo

“Radical Islam, by the grace of God, is not spreading across Russia. These and other radically-minded people pose a huge danger to Russia. This is why everything that happens in the Middle East, in Syria, Iraq, Libya, concerns us very closely.”

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow (1946) primate of the Russian Orthodox Church

24 September 2015 http://www.pravmir.com/west-should-learn-from-russia-to-accept-muslim-refugees-patriarch-kirill/ at a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at his residence in Peredelkino, Moscow Region.

David Bowie photo

“The greatest danger is always from the traitors amongst one's own ranks.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Revolution by Number

Napoleon I of France photo

“There is a joy in danger.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Michael Douglas photo

“I'm a risk-taker. Most of my career has not been a joyful experience, but it has been challenging. I like the dangers.”

Michael Douglas (1944) American actor and producer

As quoted in "Michael Douglas: ‘I’m an optimistic guy I am going to beat this’" in The Palm Beach Post (16 September 2010) https://www.palmbeachpost.com/article/20100916/ENTERTAINMENT/812018115

Robert Oppenheimer photo

“The extreme danger to mankind inherent in the proposal [to develop thermonuclear weapons] wholly outweighs any military advantage.”

Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) American theoretical physicist and professor of physics

Robert Oppenheimer et al., Report of the General Advisory Committee, 1949

Eckhart Tolle photo
Teal Swan photo

“It's dangerous, son."
"What's dangerous?"
"When a man goes outside his house to look for peace.”

Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965) playwright and writer

Source: A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay

Cassandra Clare photo

“We Shadowhunters, we put ourselves in danger, every hour, every day. I think sometimes we are reckless with our hearts the way we are with our lives. When we give them away, we give every piece.”

Variant: I think sometimes we are reckless with our hearts the way we are with our lives. When we give them away, we give every piece. And if we do not get what we so desperately need, how do we live?
Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Thomas Jefferson photo

“I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to John Taylor (28 May 1816) ME 15:23 http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116907
1810s
Context: We may say with truth and meaning that governments are more or less republican, as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition; and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Derek Landy photo
Darren Shan photo
Douglas Adams photo
Octavio Paz photo

“I don't believe that there are dangerous writers: the danger of certain books is not in the books themselves but in the passions of their readers.”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

Source: An Erotic Beyond: Sade

George W. Bush photo
Elie Wiesel photo

“Not all games are innocent. Some come dangerously close to cruelty.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Source: The Judges

Candace Bushnell photo

“In summer moonlight, she was dangerously, inebriatingly magnified.”

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Bart D. Ehrman photo

“There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty.”

Bart D. Ehrman (1955) American academic

Source: God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer

“Why do I write? I write because I have to, because it is all I know, because it is my truth, because I am compelled, because I am driven to make the world
acknowledge that women like me exist, and we possess a dangerous wisdom.”

Patrick Califia-Rice (1954) American writer

Variant: Why do I write? I write because I have to, because it is all I know, because it is my truth, because I am compelled, because I am driven to make the world acknowledge that women like me exist, and we possess a dangerous wisdom.

Holly Black photo

“You are more dangerous than daybreak.”

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

James Patterson photo

“Babies were dangerous…
they made you fall in love before you knew
what was happening.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

Marianne Williamson photo

“… available people are the ones who are dangerous, because they confront us with the possibility of real intimacy.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

Ann Brashares photo
Eve Ensler photo

“Danger lurks when people are dissociated and detached from their own story or feelings.”

Eve Ensler (1953) American playwright, performer, feminist, activist and artist

Source: Insecure at Last

Margaret Mitchell photo

“A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: A Wallflower Christmas

Richelle Mead photo
Rick Riordan photo
Hunter S. Thompson photo

“There are always risks in challenging excessive police power, but the risks ofchallenging it are more dangerous, even fatal.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century

Stephen Fry photo
Rick Riordan photo
Leo Tolstoy photo
Douglas Adams photo
Lev Grossman photo
Stephen Fry photo

“It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe, but not worth bothering with.”

Referencing Oscar Wilde from the preface of "The Picture of Dorian Gray"; "All art is quite useless".
1990s, Moab is My Washpot (autobiography, 1997)
Source: Moab Is My Washpot
Context: … but love, like all art, as Oscar said, it's quite useless. It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe but not worth bothering with.

Rick Riordan photo

“Books make dangerous devils out of women.”

Yxta Maya Murray (1970) American writer

Source: The Conquest

Suzanne Collins photo

“Obviously this person's a hazard. Stupid people are dangerous.”

Variant: Stupid people are dangerous.
Source: The Hunger Games

Cinda Williams Chima photo
Arundhati Roy photo

“Talent Katerina is a dangerous thing”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Iain Pears photo
Patrick Rothfuss photo

“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”

Variant: We all become what we pretend to be.
Source: The Name of the Wind

Richelle Mead photo
Carl von Clausewitz photo

“War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.”

Source: On War (1832), Book 1, Chapter 1, Section 3, Paragraph 1.
Context: Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat the enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.

Cinda Williams Chima photo
Seamus Heaney photo
Steven Erikson photo
Po Bronson photo
Émile Durkheim photo
Rick Riordan photo

“Danger's over, Banana Breakfast is saved.”

Source: Gravity's Rainbow

Jim Butcher photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
Ernest Hemingway photo
Rick Riordan photo
Richelle Mead photo
Naomi Novik photo
Euripidés photo

“Let no one think of me that I am humble or weak or passive; let them understand I am of a different kind: dangerous to my enemies, loyal to my friends. To such a life glory belongs.”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Source: Medea and Other Plays: Medea / Alcestis / The Children of Heracles / Hippolytus

Wilkie Collins photo
Stephen King photo
Seth Grahame-Smith photo
Hunter S. Thompson photo
Stephen King photo
Langston Hughes photo
Milan Kundera photo
Seth Grahame-Smith photo
Peter F. Drucker photo
Jorge Luis Borges photo

“I can give you my loneliness, my darkness, the hunger of my heart, I am trying to bribe you with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature
John F. Kennedy photo

“A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.”

1964 Memorial Edition, p. 266 http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations/Profiles-in-Courage-quotations.aspx
Variant: A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.
Source: Pre-1960, Profiles in Courage (1956)
Context: The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
Context: For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men — such as the subjects of this book — have lived. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

Hunter S. Thompson photo
Mercedes Lackey photo
Kelley Armstrong photo
Czeslaw Milosz photo

“Only if we assume that a poet constantly strives to liberate himself from borrowed styles in search for reality, is he dangerous. In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.”

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator

Nobel lecture (8 December 1980)
Context: Only if we assume that a poet constantly strives to liberate himself from borrowed styles in search for reality, is he dangerous. In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot. And, alas, a temptation to pronounce it, similar to an acute itching, becomes an obsession which doesn't allow one to think of anything else. That is why a poet chooses internal or external exile. It is not certain, however, that he is motivated exclusively by his concern with actuality. He may also desire to free himself from it and elsewhere, in other countries, on other shores, to recover, at least for short moments, his true vocation — which is to contemplate Being.

Rick Riordan photo
Augusten Burroughs photo
Iris Chang photo