# Caution

Caution may refer to a quality of careful attention to the probable effects of actions, or to a precautionary statement describing a potential hazards.

## Quotes

* If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
** Joseph Addison in: Eric Garner The Art of Personal Effectiveness, Bookboon, p. 18.
* In the same manner as we are cautioned by religion to show our faith by our works we may very properly apply the principle to philosophy, and judge of it by its works; accounting that to be futile which is unproductive, and still more so, if instead of grapes and olives it yield but the thistle and thorns of dispute and contention.
** Francis Bacon, in Novum Organum [The New Organon] (1620), Aphorism 73.
* Youth is the spirit of adventure and awakening. It is a time of physical emerging when the body attains the vigor and good health that may ignore the caution of temperance. Youth is a period of timelessness when the horizons of age seem too distant to be noticed.
** Ezra Taft Benson in:Official Report of the … Semi-annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Volumes 145-149, The Church, 1975, p. 43.
* I told myself that I'd had life too easy, conditioned by an upbringing where fear of change was disguised as caution.
** Ingrid Betancourt in:Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle, Hachette UK, 21 September 2010, p. 12.
* Creative risk taking is essential to success in any goal where the stakes are high. Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.
** Gary Ryan Blair in: Peter Brill and David Debin Finding Your J Spot: Joy in midlife and beyond, Third Age Foundation, p. 132.
* Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.
** Gary Ryan Blair in: Peter Brill and David Debin "Finding Your J Spot: Joy in midlife and beyond", p. 132.
* I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution.
** Wernher von Braun in: Anonymous At My Best: 365 Meditations For The Physical, Spiritual, And Emotional Well-Being, Random House Publishing Group, 14 October2009, p. 284.
* A venerable caution will forever be true when advice from Wall Street is contemplated: Don’t ask the barber whether you need a haircut.
** Warren Buffett, Chairman's Letter - 2019. Berkshire Hathaway (February 22, 2020).
* When once — which every body must be — you are convinced of the wickedness and deceit of men, it is impossible to preserve untainted your own innocence of heart. Experience will prove the depravity of mankind, and the conviction of it only serves to create distrust, suspicion — caution — and sometimes causelessly.
** Frances Burney, in her journal entry for 17 November 1768, in The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, Vol. 1, p. 47.
* Wives? she asked, interrupting him. For a moment, he had assumed she was tuning to the novel. Then he saw her waiting, suspicious eyes, so he replied cautiously, "None active," as if wives were volcanoes.
** John le Carré in:The Honourable Schoolboy, Hachette UK (25 June 2009), p. 42.
* Caution, not exuberance, should be our fiscal motto.
** John Chafee in: Emotions in the SJ Temperament — Caution, Dr Ray Lincoln & Associaites (18 April 2013).
* One of the things that I think you see sometimes in politics is a certain degree of caution. It's usually advised by consultants who don't want to see you march to the end of a limb.
** Elizabeth Edwards in: Elizabeth Edwards: Resilience Remembered, npr.org (8 December 2010).
* Distrust and caution are the parents of security.
** Benjamin Franklin in: Markus Schumacher et al.,Security Patterns: Integrating Security and Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons (12 July 2013), p. 341.
* Every step of life shows much caution is required.
** Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in:The Miracle of Self-Love: The Secret Key to Open All Doors, Hay House, Inc (2012), p. 115.
* Idealists …foolish enough to throw caution to the winds… have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.
** Emma Goldman in: Karen Weekes Women Know Everything!: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, & Brilliant Remarks, Quirk Books (2007), p. 223.
* Throw caution to the wind and just do it.
** Niamh Greene in:Confessions of a Demented Housewife: The Celebrity Year, Penguin UK (9 October 2008).
* It's like, the more you commit, the happier the animators are; if you're at all iffy and concerned, then it doesn't free them up to do as much fun stuff, so you have to just go for it and, again, trust the people around you and not be seemingly guarded and numb. Throw caution to the wind a bit.
** Neil Patrick Harris in: Jen Yamato Neil Patrick Harris on The Smurfs, Fatherhood, and the Potential for Socialist Smurf Sequels, MOVIELINE.COM (22 July, 2011).
* The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression. St. Vincent De Paul cautioned his disciples to deport themselves so that the poor "will forgive them the bread you give them."
** Eric Hoffer, in The Ordeal of Change (1963), Ch. 2: "The Awakening of Asia".
* Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive nervousness on their behalf.
** William James in: Readings in Philosophy of Religion: Ancient to Contemporary, John Wiley & Sons (30 March 2009), p. 554.
* Walk a single path, becoming neither cocky with victory nor broken with defeat, without forgetting caution when all is quiet or becoming frightened when danger threatens.
** Jigoro Kano, in Kodokan Judo (1882).
* We must substitute courage for caution.
** Martin Luther King Jr. in:The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings, Beacon Press (20 August 2013), p. 138.
* Do not commence your exercises in philosophy in those regions where an error can deliver you over to the executioner.
** Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Aphorisms (1773), C16
* Scars fade with time. And the ones that never go away, well, they build character, maturity, caution.
** Erin McCarthy in:The Pregnancy Test, Kensington Publishing Corp. (1 October 2005), p. 240.
* It's important that we attempt to extend life beyond Earth now. It is the first time in the four billion-year history of Earth that it's been possible, and that window could be open for a long time - hopefully it is - or it could be open for a short time. We should err on the side of caution and do something now.
** Elon Musk in: Uberpreneurs: How to Create Innovative Global Businesses and Transform Human Societies, Palgrave Macmillan (9 December 2013), p. 68.
* Choose your friends with caution; plan your future with purpose, and frame your life with faith.
** Thomas S. Monson in: Daniel Marques Born to be Alive: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose, UPbP.tk (21 April 2012), p. 87.
* Our merciful Father has no pleasure in the sufferings of His children; He chastens them in love; He never inflicts a stroke He could safely spare; He inflicts it to purify as well as to punish, to caution as well as to cure, to improve as well as to chastise.
** Hannah More, as quoted in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 568.
* A rat race is for rats. We're not rats. We're human beings. Reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that is happening around you, that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardise your chances of promotion and self-advancement.
** Jimmy Reid in: Colin Firth, Anthony Arnove The People Speak: Democracy is not a Spectator Sport, Canongate Books, 13 September 2012, p. 226.
* Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.”
** Tom Robbins in: Cratis D. Williams ales from Sacred Wind: Coming of Age in Appalachia. The Cratis Williams Chronicles., McFarland, 11 March 2003, p. 407.
* The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.
** J. K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), in lines for Albus Dumbledore.
* It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.
** J. K. Rowling, in her Harvard University Commencement Address (5 June 2008).
* Make decisions about the President's personal security. He can overrule you, but don't ask him to be the one to counsel caution.
** Donald Rumsfeld in: Public statements of Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, 2001, Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense (2001), p. 202.
* Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
** Bertrand Russell, in The Conquest of Happiness (1930).
* Although our "gentle air" cannot improve the way hate and envy look, it does seem not to encourage firmness and decision. All is compromise; caution and refinement are everywhere. Everything has to "make a good impression" — whether or not it is any good: the impression is the main thing.
** Arnold Schoenberg, in "About Music Criticism" (1909), in Style and Idea (1985), p. 196.
* Whatever you do, be on your guard, for whoever does so keeps the commandments.
** Sirach 32:23
* Above all the things that you guard, safeguard your heart, for out of it are the sources of life.
** Solomon, Proverbs 4:23
* The wise one is cautious and turns away from evil, but the stupid one is reckless and overconfident.
** Solomon, Proverbs 14:16
* The shrewd one sees the danger and conceals himself, but the inexperienced keep right on going and suffer the consequences.
** Solomon, Proverbs 22:3
* Happy is the man who is always on guard, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
** Solomon, Proverbs 28:14
* It is a good thing to learn caution from the misfortunes of others.
** Publilius Syrus in: Adam Woolbever (comp.) Treasury of Wisdom, Wit and Humor, Odd Comparisons and Proverbs: Authors, 931 ; Subjects, 1393 ; Quotations, 10, 200, Claxton & Company (1881), p. 47.
* It is better to err on the side of daring than the side of caution.
** Alvin Toffler in:Master Writing for the SAT: What You Need for Test Success, Peterson's (28 August 2008), p. 18.
* More firm and sure the hand of courage strikes, when it obeys the watchful eye of caution.
** James Thomson in: James Thomson et al., The Works of Mr. James Thomson … To which is prefixed the life of the author by Patrick Murdoch. With engravings, including a portrait , William Tegg & Company (1849), p. 396.
* The enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general full of caution.
** Sun Tzu in: Col. Harjeet Singh Evolution of Strategy: From Sun Tzu to Clausewitz : Containing the Original Texts, Pentagon Press (2009), p. 45.
* Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
** George Washington in: Lincoln's Sacred Effort: Defining Religion's Role in American Self-government, Lexington Books (1 January 2000), p. 7.
* Erring on the side of over-caution is costly, and so is erring on the side of under-caution, though for a given choice, one might be costlier than the other.
** Walter E. Williams, in Economics for the Citizen (2005).
* "It's wrong to profit from the misfortune of others." I ask my students whether they'd support a law against doing so. But I caution them with some examples. An orthopedist profits from your misfortune of having broken your leg skiing. When there's news of a pending ice storm, I doubt whether it saddens the hearts of those in the collision repair business. I also tell my students that I profit from their misfortune — their ignorance of economic theory.
** Walter E. Williams, in Economics for the Citizen (2005).
* Caution is the confidential agent of selfishness.
** Woodrow Wilson in:Woodrow Wilson: Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-president, NYU Press (2006), p. 101.
* Your spiritual teachers caution you against enquiry — tell you not to read certain books; not to listen to certain people; to beware of profane learning; to submit your reason, and to receive their doctrines for truths. Such advice renders them suspicious counsellors. By their own creed you hold your reason from their God. Go! ask them why he gave it.
** Frances Wright, in A Course of Popular Lectures (1829), Lecture III: Of the more Important Divisions and Essential Parts of Knowledge.