Francois Rene de Chateaubriand Quotes

The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.

Clearly there are always unintended consequences of any legislative or regulatory act that's taken in the heat of battle.

As history has shown, pure science research ultimately ends up applying to something. We just don't know it at the time.

What people fear most about tragedy is its randomness - a taxi cab jumps the curb and hits a pedestrian, a gun misfires and kills a bystander. Better to have some rational cause and effect between incident and injury. And if cause and effect aren't possible, better that there at least be some reward for all the suffering.

Significant consequences can begin very inconsequentially. That's one thing that fascinates me. The other thing that fascinates me is how accident can undermine something that's unfolding, something that might have played out differently otherwise.

Actions can have unintended adverse consequences.

In world history man’s actions result in something quite different from what he purposes or intends.

History sometimes makes fun of us and our best intentions.

Every action we have is going to have repercussions in ways we could not anticipate.

If I look back, I think most of the things I did - the films, the books, the collaborations with these magazines - were mostly by accident.

He picked up the letter Q and hurled it into a distant privet bush where it hit a young rabbit. The rabbit hurtled off in terror and didn’t stop till it was set upon and eaten by a fox which choked on one of its bones and died on the bank of a stream which subsequently washed it away. During the following weeks Ford Perfect swallowed his pride and struck up a relationship with a girl who had been a personnel officer on Golgafrincham, and he was terribly upset when she suddenly passed away as a result of drinking water from a pool that had been polluted by the body of a dead fox.

Be careful what you wish for. There's always a catch.

Unintended Consequences

In every one of my scientific expeditions, the most significant findings were things I didn’t expect and was not originally what we were studying.

There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.

In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we force them.

A lot of times, you think you want something, and then you find something completely different.

With every project, there are things that surprise you with the meaning they take on as you start to use them.

Things happen in weird, serendipitous ways.

I think probably the majority of political actions don't go the way people are going to go. Just because there were unexpected consequences and maybe not the resolution people would have liked to have been seen doesn't mean it was less valid of an action.

I think, like all big things, you don't know they're going to be a big thing when you start. You just kind of, like, play because it's fun, and it's interesting, and then it turns out to be way more important than you expected.

In true Slipknot fashion, nothing we plan works out the way we want it.

I've only ever had surprises. My whole career's a surprise!

Something devastating can happen to you, and it can have positive consequences. By the same token, something fantastic can happen, and it can bring a lot of trouble. That's life.

I would say that when you do something out of the goodness of your heart, and you don't know what the repercussions will be, you have to live with that. And it can be devastating. Because the intention was there.