#Foresight Quotes

“When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; And when we see the figure of the house, Then must we rate the cost of the erection.”

“For the success,Although particular, shall give a scantlingOf good or bad unto the general;And in such indexes, although small pricksTo their subsequent volumes, there is seenThe baby figure of the giant massOf things to come at large.”

“When clouds are seen wise men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall then winter is at hand.”

“Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.”

“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.”

“There was a man who sold a hyena skin while the beast still lived and who was killed in hunting it.”

“It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.”

“The legislator must be in advance of his age.Across the mind of the statesman flash ever and anon the brilliant, though partial, intimations of future events.... Something which is more than fore-sight and less than prophetic knowledge marks the statesman a peculiar being among his contemporaries.”

“I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.”

“Everyone can recognize history when it happens. Everyone can recognize history after is has happened; but only the wise man knows at the moment what is vital and permanent, what is lasting and memorable.”

“The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”

“Don't wait to buy land, Buy land and wait. Find out where the people are going and buy the land before they get there.”

“Jesters do oft prove prophets.”

“Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong - these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”

“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. The person sitting in the shade now should be grateful for the person who planted and tended that tree. That includes all those benefactors of humanity throughout history that created, invented, financed, produced, maintained and improved all that we enjoy today.”

“The fellow that can only see a week ahead is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd. But the one that can see years ahead, he has a telescope but he can't make anybody believe that he has it.”

“You politicians have got to look further ahead; you always got a Putter in your hands, when you ought to have a Driver.”

“What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end.”

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”

“Most players go where the puck is. I go where the puck will be.”

“Good players skate to the puck. Great players skate to where the puck is going to be.”

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure understated.”

“I will die Before My Time. Because I feel the shadow's Depth. So much I wanted to accomplish. before I reached my Death”

“It is time for us now as a nation to exercise the same reasonable foresight in dealing with our great natural resources that would be shown by any prudent man in conserving and widely using the property which contains the assurance of well-being for himself and his children.”

“The one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight... It should be the growing nation with a future which takes the long look ahead.”

“Make preparations in advance ... you never have trouble if you are prepared for it.”

“Conservation of our resources is the fundamental question before this nation, and that our first and greatest task is to set our house in order and begin to live within our means.”

“Conservation and rural-life policies are really two sides of the same policy; and down at the bottom this policy rests upon the fundamental law that neither man nor nation can prosper unless, in dealing with the present, thought is steadily given for the future.”

“Data is like garbage. You'd better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it.”

“If you want to know what the future is, be part of its development.”

“Tomorrow always arrives. It is always different. And even the mightiest company is in trouble if it has not worked on the future. Being surprised by what happens is a risk that even the largest and richest company cannot afford, and even the smallest business need not run.”

“Nobody can predict the future; the idea is to have a firm grasp of the present.”

“Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”

“I told you this would happen. But, no, you had to go for the buffet, didn't you?”

“The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don't just go away, they are only postponed to someone else's advantage. Therefore, they made war with Philip and Antiochus in Greece, in order not to have to fight them in Italy... They never went by that saying which you constantly hear from the wiseacres of our day, that time heals all things. They trusted rather their own character and prudence- knowing perfectly well that time contains the seeds of all things, good as well as bad.”

“Wise men say, and not without reason, that whosoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past.”

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

“He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.”

“It is a common failing of man not to take account of tempests during fair weather.”

“In abundance prepare for scarcity.”

“Journalism has become the art of "intelligent anticipation of events."”

“Treat the large as the small and the few as the many.”

“You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.”

“Take care of what is difficult while it is still easy, and deal with what will become big while it is yet small.”

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

“Solve it before it happens. Order it before chaos emerges.”

“Prepare while it's easy.”

“Meet the big while it is small.”