33 Quotes About Taking Risks in Life That Will Open Your Mind

Reading quotes about taking risks in life from thinkers I respect helps reinforce my worldview. When setting out to create a life of your own design, others can will make you doubt yourself. They’ll urge you to play it safe, or make you feel like your dreams are unrealistic.

That’s why I’ve spent time curating this collection of quotes about risk-taking, to act as important reminders.

As you’ll see, a wide range of successful individuals—from entrepreneurs to athletes and philosophers—all share the same sentiment. Taking calculated risks and continued experimentation is what leads us to what we’re seeking in life.

Here’s to never letting anyone convince us otherwise.

Quotes About Taking Risks

The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.

Mark Zuckerberg

Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Helen Keller

Leap, and the net will appear.

John Burroughs

I don’t believe in pitfalls. I believe in taking risks and not doing the same thing twice.

Guy Laliberte

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 Drucker

It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all.

William James

The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.

Goethe

The biggest risk a person can take is to do nothing.

Robert Kiyosaki

It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.

Seneca

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Wayne Gretzky

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.

T.S. Eliot

The reward is in the risk.

Rachel Cohn

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

General George Patton

Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.

Jimmy Carter 

Freedom is always associated with risk taking, whether it leads to it or comes from it.

Nassim Taleb

It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.

John Paul Jones

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

Are you placing enough interesting, freakish, long shot, weirdo bets?

Tom Peters

If you risk nothing, then you risk everything.

Geena Davis

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Paulo Coelho

To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.

Søren Kierkegaard

If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.

Neil Gaiman

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

Muhammad Ali

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.

John F. Kennedy

If you opt for a safe life, you will never know what it’s like to win.

Richard Branson

The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.

Chuck Palahniuk

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

Mark Twain

Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.

Denis Waitley

Trust the still, small voice that says, ‘this might work and I’ll try it.’

Diane Mariechild

I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity, is daring to dare.

Maya Angelou

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Goethe

If you do not take risks for your opinion, you’re nothing.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Parting Words

Living the life of a flaneur inherently involves taking risks and being comfortable with uncertainty. By taking calculated risks, we open ourselves up to opportunities that have incredible upside potential. Even when our experiments don’t pan out, they can lead to personal growth and new levels of understanding — both of ourselves and the world.

What’s your favorite quote about taking risks in life? Have any others to add to the list? Do let me know!

P.S. If you liked this, you might also enjoy these related quote collections:

• Quotes About Financial Freedom
• Quotes About Nonconformity
• Quotes About Seizing Opportunity
• Quotes About Exploration
• Quotes About Life Obstacles

Originally Published: September 12, 2019