80 Inspiring Quotes About Risk

In a world brimming with uncertainty, risk is an inevitable part of our journey. Whether embarking on a new career, exploring uncharted paths, or nurturing personal relationships, taking risks often catalyzes growth and discovery. For many, the thought of stepping out of one’s comfort zone can be daunting; however, it is precisely within these bold leaps that we find the opportunity to redefine our limits and embrace transformation. This carefully curated collection of 80 inspiring quotes about risk serves as a reminder of the courage needed to venture into the unknown and the rewards awaiting those who dare. Let these words of wisdom ignite your spirit and inspire you to confront life’s challenges with unwavering bravery.

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. “When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take a step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.” - Patrick Overton

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

8. “The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.” - Chuck Palahniuk

9. “To take that risk, to offer life and remain alive, open yourself like this and become whole.” - Margaret Atwood

10. “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt

11. “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

12. “Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds -- justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can't go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.” - Anne Rice

13. “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

14. “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

15. “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

16. “The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.” - Tacitus

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

18. “Fortune sides with him who dares.” - Virgil

19. “In theory, the risk of business failure can be reduced to a number, the probability of failure multiplied by the cost of failure. Sure, this turns out to be a subjective analysis, but in the process your own attitudes toward financial risk and reward are revealed.By contrast, personal risk usually defies quantification. It's a matter of values and priorities, an expression of who you are. "Playing it safe" may simply mean you do not weigh heavily the compromises inherent in the status quo. The financial rewards of the moment may fully compensate you for the loss of time and fulfillment. Or maybe you just don't think about it. On the other hand, if time and satisfaction are precious, truly priceless, you will find the cost of business failure, so long as it does not put in peril the well-being of you or your family, pales in comparison with the personal risks of no trying to live the life you want today.Considering personal risk forces us to define personal success. We may well discover that the business failure we avoid and the business success we strive for do not lead us to personal success at all. Most of us have inherited notions of "success" from someone else or have arrived at these notions by facing a seemingly endless line of hurdles extending from grade school through college and into our careers. We constantly judge ourselves against criteria that others have set and rank ourselves against others in their game. Personal goals, on the other hand, leave us on our own, without this habit of useless measurement and comparison.Only the Whole Life Plan leads to personal success. It has the greatest chance of providing satisfaction and contentment that one can take to the grave, tomorrow. In the Deferred Life Plan there will always be another prize to covet, another distraction, a new hunger to sate. You will forever come up short.” - Randy Komisar

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

21. “Overconfidence blurs out the risk. Inferiority magnifies it.” - Toba Beta [Betelgeuse Incident]

22. “People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” - Peter F. Drucker

23. “I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stunned by this for many years. And then I realized, you just say, "Hi." They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And that possibility is worth that one word.” - Augusten Burroughs

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

25. “Chirp of coward shouted in crowd,dare to speak but not to be known.” - Toba Beta

26. “I've long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we're talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime 'associates,' food, for me, has always been an adventure” - Anthony Bourdain

27. “Smartass Disciple: Why men don't ready yet to join the intergalactic confederation?Master of Stupidity: Men could make them laugh to death. It'd be too risky for them.” - Toba Beta

28. “Hypocrite shouts about the change,but never let risk coming on his way.” - Toba Beta

29. “They were two lovely choices. One of them meant giving up every chance of a decent life forever...and the other one scared me out of my mind.” - Frederik Pohl

30. “You jeopardize all if move slowly on a fast lane.” - Toba Beta

31. “You won't be a wiser man if you always keep away from bad people or poor ones.” - Toba Beta

32. “She'd risked everything, and here was the result: the raw, warped core of her life.” - Jennifer Egan

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

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

35. “Being safe doesn't mean you won't be sorry.” - Katerina Stoykova Klemer

36. “Suddenly, I was just sure he was going to kiss me. He was there, I could feel his breath, the ground solid beneath us. But then something crossed his face, a thought, a hesitation, and he shifted slightly. Not now. Not yet. It was something I'd done so often - weighing what I could afford to risk, right at that moment - that I recognized it instantly. It was like looking in a mirror.” - Sarah Dessen

37. “My whole life, I had thought that my story was, again and again: Once upon a time, there was a boy, and he had to risk everything to keep what he loved. But really, the story was: Once upon a time, there was a boy, and his fear ate him alive.” - Maggie Stiefvater

38. “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

39. “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

40. “Wisdom is nothing more than confirmed imagination: just because one did not study for his exam does not mean that he should leave it blank.” - Criss Jami

41. “If you risk nothing, then you risk everything.” - Geena Davis

42. “The faithful man perceives nothing less than opportunity in difficulties. Flowing through his spine, faith and courage work together: Such a man does not fear losing his life, thus he will risk losing it at times in order to empower it. By this he actually values his life more than the man who fears losing his life. It is much like leaping from a window in order to avoid a fire yet in that most crucial moment knowing that God will appear to catch you.” - Criss Jami

43. “After awhile you realize that putting your actions where your mouth is makes you less likely to have to put your money where your mouth is.” - Criss Jami

44. “True rebels hate their own rebellion. They know by experience that it is not a cool and glamorous lifestyle; it takes a courageous fool to say things that have not been said and to do things that have not been done.” - Criss Jami

45. “Never go into venture capital if you want a peaceful life.” - Georges F. Doriot

46. “Love is a violent recreational sport. Proceed at your own risk. Helmets, armor, and steel-toe boots are required by law.” - H.C. Paye

47. “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

48. “You know what my father said about innocent clients? ... He said the scariest client a lawyer will ever have is an innocent client. Because if you fuck up and he goes to prison, it'll scar you for life ... He said there is no in-between with an innocent client. No negotiation, no plea bargain, no middle ground. There's only one verdict. You have to put an NG up on the scoreboard. There's no other verdict but not guilty."Levin nodded thoughtfully."The bottom line was my old man was a damn good lawyer and he didn't like having innocent clients," I said. "I'm not sure I do, either.” - Michael Connelly

49. “The word 'risk' derives from the early Italian risicare, which means 'to dare'. In this sense, risk is a choice rather than a fate. The actions we dare to take, which depend on how free we are to make choices, are what the story of risk is all about. And that story helps define what it means to be a human being.” - Peter L. Bernstein

50. “You touch some of the reasons for my going, not for my staying away.” - Charles Dickens

51. “I couldn't look at her. I'd been jealous and hurt, and I had dragged Liv into the middle of my own broken mess of a life. All because I thought Lena didn't love me anymore. But I was stupid, and I was wrong. Lena loved me so much, she was willing to risk everything to save me. I had given up on Lena, after she had refused to give up on me. I owed her my life. It was as simple as that.” - Kami Garcia

52. “You mean something like ‘truth or dare’? I haven’t played that in a long time.” She didn’t think he would ever get himself entangled in a game like that, but it was addictive, a compromising icebreaker featuring all the strategy of Poker, minus the cards, mixed with a dash of danger from Russian Roulette, without the revolver.” - E.A. Bucchianeri

53. “and I said, 'That is why you don't climb mountains, Gwen.' But now I wonder. You aren't afraid of heights.""No", she said. "Not particularly.""Only missteps."She paused midstroke. Did he mean to imply this had been a misstep? "I was afraid," she said carefully. "For a very long time. But no longer." "So was I," he said, and lifted her chin and kissed her.” - Meredith Duran

54. “Change is not always a good thing. What I need is not change from one thing to another but transformation from who I am into who I was meant to become. Only when God's transforming power touches me can I begin to live the simpler, freer, fresher, more creative, more patient, more passionate, more sacrificial, riskier, rawer, more real, more love-driven life God intended for me all along. That transformation is what awaits all who dare to enter the story of God. As Paul wrote, 'Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think' (Romans 12:2)” - Steven James

55. “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

56. “Wisdom mitigates the risk of being honest.” - Toba Beta

57. “I’ll not let the pair of you charge boldly into wolves’ teeth without me alongside” - Meredith Ann Pierce

58. “...I don't want security - to be self-assured - I want to risk my heart in making your portrait and be paid the wages of your devotion...” - John Geddes

59. “Stand at the top of a cliff and jump off and build your wings on the way down.” - Ray Bradbury

60. “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

61. “Have nuts and be nuts.” - Criss Jami

62. “Any way, is better than no way at all.” - Anthony Liccione

63. “Dreaming is risky. While only some dreams can put you at physical risk, all dreams require that you take an emotional risk. By their nature, dreams create a gap between your present reality and the reality you want to have, causing you to question whether you can bridge that gap. This risk alone can be so daunting for people that they prefer to leave their dreams in their childhood or buried away beneath layers of fear, doubt, and resignation. That’s why dreaming bigger dreams takes courage; it means risking the possibility that your dreams will not come true.” - Margie Warrell

64. “Your “everybody” probably represents even a smaller proportion of the population than your Rolodex. Psychologists have documented that our typical everybody— to which they refer as the “generalized other”—is usually a collection of about five or six people.” - Margie Warrell

65. “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

66. “Engaging in activities devoid of difficulty, lounging in risk-free zones, is life without great meaning.” - Jon M. Huntsman Sr.

67. “The willingness to show up changes us, It makes us a little braver each time.” - Brené Brown

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

69. “Just remember, you never know what's possible until you risk finding out.” - Jasinda Wilder

70. “Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable?” - Francis Chan

71. “It is only by being bold that you get anywhere. If you are a risk-taker, then the art is to protect the downside.” - Richard Branson

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

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

74. “Stop looking for the path of least resistance and start running down the path of greatest glory to God and good to others, because that's what Jesus, the Real Man, did.” - Mark Driscoll

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

76. “How do I get past my fears? Make a life for myself? Risk loving someone? When death is all that waits for you, what's the point in trying to have a life?” - Colleen Houck

77. “...the ratings agencies' problem was in being unable or uninterested in appreciating the distinction between risk and uncertainty.” - Nate Silver

78. “We are always hungry and never satisfied because we don’t trust and won’t risk. Can we reach a place where we are satisfied with just enough? You are enough. You have enough. Do not worry about tomorrow. God will provide in our lives just as God provides in the Eucharist.” - Mary DeTurris Poust

79. “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

80. “If so, then it was also here where I came to know I can survive what hurts. I believed in my capacity to stand back up and run into the waves again and again, no matter the risk.” - Terry Tempest Williams