Winston Churchill Quotes

The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year – and to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.

You can predict all you want, but everybody knows what predictions get you.

People don't realize that we cannot forecast the future. What we can do is have probabilities of what causes what, but that's as far as we go. And I've had a very successful career as a forecaster, starting in 1948 forward. The number of mistakes I have made are just awesome. There is no number large enough to account for that.

History shows us that people are terrible about guessing what is going to happen - next week, next month, and especially next year.

The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.

An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.

Events alone rarely provide much guide to the future.

The future will be determined in part by happenings that it is impossible to foresee; it will also be influenced by trends that are now existent and observable.

I figure lots of predictions is best. People will forget the ones I get wrong and marvel over the rest.

I think my view is that whenever you project into the future you're never likely to be accurate in the details, or the paraphernalia and style. It's in the spirit of it.

I am incredibly bad at predicting the future; I am only smart enough to observe the present and listen to my intuition about tendencies.

I'm a lousy predictor of the future.

Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities.

I don't think of myself predicting things. I'm expressing possibilities. Things that could happen. To a large extent it's a question of how badly people want them to.

Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future.

It's really not a good idea to forecast or double guess the fates; you will always be fooled.

I'm not making any bets on the future.

It would be foolish, in forming our expectations, to attach great weight to matters which are very uncertain.

Forecasting

Predictions are hard, especially about the future.

There is no formula that will guarantee success in forecasting, no magic words that will part the clouds. The real problem, as the old saw puts it, is that the future lies ahead.

No one can escape the iron rule that once you make a forecast, you know you're going to be wrong; you just don't know when and in which direction!

I had no idea if 'No Roots' was going to work or not.