Prognostication Quotes

Study the past if you would define the future. --CONFUCIUS

Prediction is difficult - particularly when it involves the future.

It's the ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year --- and to explain afterward why it didn't happen.

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

Hindsight is good, foresight is better; but second sight is best of all.

Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.

Pundits forecast not because they know, but because they are asked.

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

It is bad enough to know the past; it would be intolerable to know the future.

You can't see the future, there's no such thing. It's all bets. You'll never get the same answer from two seers. But that doesn't mean either of them's wrong.

He who would foresee what is to happen should look to what has happened: for all that is has its counterpart in time past.

If other people want to talk about my future I can't control that.

The art of prophecy is very difficult, especially with respect to the future.

When we get to the future, I'll determine the future.

Genius always looks forward, and not only sees what is, but what necessarily will be.

Memory has many conveniences, and, among others, that of foreseeing things as they have afterwards happened.

PROPHECY, n. The art and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery.

I'm not pessimistic about anything.

Newspapers tell beforehand what is going to happen - maybe.

I have no use whatsoever for projections or forecasts. They create an illusion of apparent precision. The more meticulous they are, the more concerned you should be. We never look at projections, but we care very much about, and look very deeply at, track records. If a company has a lousy track record, but a very bright future, we will miss the opportunity.

Prediction, not narration, is the real test of our understanding of the world.

I predict, not because I know, but because I'm asked.

We are always looking into the future, but we see only the past.

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.