Prudent Decision Making Quotes

A management decision is irresponsible if it risks disaster this year for the sake of a grandiose future.

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.

Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.

Advanced cultures are usually sophisticated enough, or have been sophisticated enough at some point in their pasts, to realize that foxes shouldn't be relied on to guard henhouses.

Behold, the fool saith, "Put not all thine eggs in the one basket" - which is but a matter of saying, "Scatter your money and your attention"; but the wise man saith, "Pull all your eggs in the one basket and - WATCH THAT BASKET." - Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar

All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

This is not the time for knee jerk populist reactions to problems. These will only discourage foreign investment and make matters worse.

Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.

You must bear constantly in mind not to hazard unnecessarily your command ... but be content to accomplish all the good you can, without feeling it necessary to obtain all that might be desired.

Knowing what is right does not make a sagacious man.

To secure the ground we gain, and gain what more we can, is, I think, the wisest course

We should never so entirely avoid danger as to appear irresolute and cowardly; but, at the same time, we should avoid unnecessarily exposing ourselves to danger, than which nothing can be more foolish.

We conservatives don't have a corner on saying 'no'. We're just the ones who say it when it's the right thing to say.

Wisdom means to choose now what will make sense later.

Wealth is commonplace but wisdom is rare. I beg you to remember that wealth without wisdom can often end in disaster.

Common sense among men of fortune is rare.

Being prudent does not mean being fearful.

Everything depends on knowing how much,” she said, and “Good is knowing when to stop.

To hazard much to get much has more of avarice than wisdom.

The policy of the United States does not flow from transitory considerations.

The essence of wisdom is to know when to be doing, and when it's useless even to try

What is permitted is not always wise.

I would rather sustain the penalties resulting from over-conservatism than face the consequences of error, perhaps with permanent capital loss, resulting from the adoption of "New Era" philosophy where trees really do grow to the sky.

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.

I try not to take any foolish chances, but there's just no way to play it completely safe and still do your job.