46 Risk-Inspiring Quotes

Taking risks often propels us to new heights and unlocks extraordinary possibilities. Whether in our professional endeavors, personal lives, or creative pursuits, embracing uncertainty can lead to remarkable transformations and profound growth. To inspire and encourage your journey, we’ve compiled a curated collection of the top 46 risk-inspiring quotes. These words of wisdom from trailblazers, visionaries, and thought leaders will spark your courage, push you beyond your comfort zone, and remind you that the greatest rewards often come to those willing to take a leap of faith. Dive in and let these powerful quotes fuel your adventurous spirit and compel you to seize the opportunities that lie just beyond the horizon.

1. “A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.” - John A. Shedd

2. “Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain.(Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)” - Blaise Pascal

3. “Take risks! That is really what life is about. We must pursue our own happiness. Nobody has ever lived our lives; ther are no guidelines. Trust your instincts. Accept nothing but the best. But then also look for it carefully. Don't allow it to slip between your fingers. Sometimes, good things come to us in a such a quiet fashion. And nothing comes complete. It is what we make of whatever we encounter that determines the outcome. What we choose to see, what we choose to save. And what we choose to remember. Never forget that all the love in your life is there, inside you, always.” - Linda Olsson

4. “If you don't take risks, you'll have a wasted soul.” - Drew Barrymore

5. “The only safe thing is to take a chance.” - Elaine May

6. “But if you're gonna dine with them cannibalsSooner or later, darling, you're gonna get eaten . . .” - Nick Cave

7. “So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” - Hunter S. Thompson

8. “Vital lives are about action. You can't feel warmth unless you create it, can't feel delight until you play, can't know serendipity unless you risk.” - Joan Erickson

9. “Never was anything great achieved without danger.” - Niccolo Machiavelli

10. “Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to "go out" in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to "go out" through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.” - Oswald Chambers

11. “Love's easy to learn. It's like taking a risk. You set your mind on it and refuse to be afraid, and in no time you feel terrifically exhilarated and all your inhibitions fly out of the window.” - Dick Francis

12. “To win without risk is to triumph without glory.” - Pierre Corneille

13. “Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won’t suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back – and at some point everyone looks back – she will hear her heart saying, “What have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage; the certainty that you wasted your life.” - Paulo Coelho

14. “Break the glass, I thought to myself, because it is a symbolic gesture. Try to understand that within myself, things were breaking of much more importance than a glass, and I’m happy for that. Look to your own inner struggles and break this glass.Our parents taught us to be careful with glasses and with our bodies. They taught us that the passions of childhood are impossible; we should not remove men from the priesthood, that people do not perform miracles and that no one goes on a journey without knowing where he wants to go.Break this cup, please, I thought to myself, and release of all these damn misconceptions, the habit you have of only doing that which everyone agrees with.” - Paulo Coelho

15. “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” - William Faulkner

16. “In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk.” - Robert T. Kiyosaki

17. “Risk means 'shit happens' or 'good luck” - Toba Beta

18. “Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.” - Sarah Addison Allen

19. “There is no discovery without risk and what you risk reveals what you value.” - Jeanette Winterson

20. “All life's a risk, that's what makes it interesting.” - Megan Chance

21. “The question, love, is whether you want me enough to take the risk.” - Lisa Kleypas

22. “It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

23. “We must have courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk, and to act. Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness.” - Maxwell Maltz

24. “People who live life in fear of taking risks die without living it.” - Fola

25. “Risks? I have lived with the prospect of assassination for years. What risks? All men die, rich and poor alike. But if I am to die, then let it be while I fight, not like some bullock in a pen waiting for the ax to fall.” - David Gemmell

26. “The greatest risk to man is not that he aims too high and misses, but that he aims too low and hits.” - Michaelangelo

27. “Since that day there is nothing anyone could ever say to convince me that one person cannot change a nation. One person can do unbelievable things. All it takes is that one person who's willing to risk everything to make it happen.” - Sam Childers

28. “I know I'll never marry, never risk bringing a child into the world. Because if there's one thing being a victor doesn't guarantee, it's our children's safety. My kids' names would go right into the reaping balls with everyone else's. And I swear I'll never let that happen.” - Suzanne Collins

29. “Deep SongBelief is what buries us—that& the belief in belief—No longerdo I trust liltlessness—leewardis the world'sway—Go onplunge in—the lungs willlet us float.Joy is the mile-high ledgethe leap—a breathabove the lip of the abandonedquarry—beliefthe dark the deep.” - Kevin Young

30. “An afternoon drive from Los Angeles will take you up into the high mountains, where eagles circle above the forests and the cold blue lakes, or out over the Mojave Desert, with its weird vegetation and immense vistas. Not very far away are Death Valley, and Yosemite, and Sequoia Forest with its giant trees which were growing long before the Parthenon was built; they are the oldest living things in the world. One should visit such places often, and be conscious, in the midst of the city, of their surrounding presence. For this is the real nature of California and the secret of its fascination; this untamed, undomesticated, aloof, prehistoric landscape which relentlessly reminds the traveller of his human condition and the circumstances of his tenure upon the earth. "You are perfectly welcome," it tells him, "during your short visit. Everything is at your disposal. Only, I must warn you, if things go wrong, don't blame me. I accept no responsibility. I am not part of your neurosis. Don't cry to me for safety. There is no home here. There is no security in your mansions or your fortresses, your family vaults or your banks or your double beds. Understand this fact, and you will be free. Accept it, and you will be happy.” - Christopher Isherwood

31. “Sirius looked out of the fire at Harry, a crease between his sunken eyes. “You’re less like your father than I thought,” he said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. “The risk would’ve been what made it fun for James.”“Look —”“Well, I’d better get going . . . I’ll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, then, shall I? If you can stand to risk it?”There was a tiny pop, and the place where Sirius’s head had been was flickering flame once more.” - J.K. Rowling

32. “I recalled the afternoon when the two of us stood beating erasers, and Camille confided that she'd done penance for stories - stories that I'll never know if she wrote or only imagined writing. She'd wanted me to tell her a secret from my dreams, a secret from my dreams I hadn't had as yet, and so I didn't quite understand what she was after."It's about feeling," Camille had insisted.I didn't understand then that she was talking about risk.” - Stuart Dybek

33. “To save all we must risk all.” - Friedrich von Schiller

34. “Heralds don't sing about men who lived in orthodoxy or played it safe, they sing about men who lived an uncertain future and took enough risks to make your head spin.” - Evan Meekins

35. “For what it’s worth: trust your feelings. I can’t promise that you’ll never get hurt again, but I can promise you the risk is worth it.” - Rick Riordan

36. “When there's nothing left to save, there's nothing left to lose.” - T.S. Welti

37. “The ragamuffin gospel says we can't lose, because we have nothing to lose.” - Brennan Manning

38. “Oh I know it's cliché but yeah they say that great men make it in-To places few others who even do take the risk've ever been” - Criss Jami

39. “I might be manipulating you to create risk for myself.” - Sharon Stone

40. “Leaders know that the fruit of life is out on a limb.” - Orrin Woodward

41. “If you are afraid to take a chance, take one anyway. What you don't do can create the same regrets as the mistakes you make.” - Iyanla Vanzant

42. “He's a conundrum- and there's still a piece missing from the puzzle." Whatever that piece was, there was a part of me telling me not to get involved- that it was too much to handle. That you shouldn't go out on a limb unless you're absolutely sure the limb can support your weight.” - Neal Shusterman

43. “Do you still insist on telling the truth even though you know that it could destroy this world?” - Toba Beta

44. “Walker and Timothy sat quietly for a very long time. “Why do so many people make it so hard for anyone to help them or to love them?” Walker asked finally. Timothy chuckled. “Ah, Walker—if I could explain all of humanity’s foibles, I’d be a rich man indeed, at least as far as money goes. I believe people are like that because of fear. They fear being loved because they fear that if they’re loved, they’ll have to love back. And if they love back, they may get hurt. And many people aren’t ready to put their hearts on the line like that. Mostly because they don’t have anything to fall back on. It’s quite a shame, really, because they hurt themselves by trying to avoid getting hurt. But we have to be willing to die many times if we’re ever going to get on with this business of living.” - Tom Walsh

45. “A risk is a risk because it's avoidable.” - Erica Bauermeister

46. “Everyone was willing to take some small risk to lessen the damage of their ambition and disorder and lawlessness.” - Kristin Cashore