Your task is not to foresee the future, but to enable it.
--
Citadelle (1948) (translated into English as The Wisdom of the Sands)Antoine de Saint Exupery
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Obviously the future must be considered in the light of one's own power to influence events. THe man of action cannot be a fatalist. The architect has to think of the future of the house he is building; a workman has to take measure for safeguarding his old age; a member of the Chamber has to consider the possible effects of the budget for which he is going to vote. But once decisions are made and measures taken, peace of mind must be re-established. It is absurd to try to foresee things when the means of doing it are lacking.
Andre Maurois
So far as I can see, all political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.
George Orwell
Postulate 1. All chance systems of causes are not alike in the sense that they enable us to predict the future in terms of the past.
Walter A. Shewhart
In terms of earthly life as you understand it, it is overly optimistic to imagine that eventually all illnesses will be conquered, all relationships be inevitably fulfilling, or to foresee a future in which all people on earth are treated with equality and respect.
Jane Roberts
I foresee that man will resign himself each day to more atrocious undertakings; soon there will be no one but warriors and brigands; I give them this counsel: The author of an atrocious undertaking ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it, ought to impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.
Jorge Luis Borges
Saint Exupery, Antoine de
Saint-Just, Louis Antoine de
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