Prudent people are very happy; tis an exceeding fine thing, thats certain, but I was born without it, and shall retain to my day of Death the Humour of saying what I think. – Mary Wortley Montagu

We can easily become as much slaves to precaution as we can to fear. Although we can never rivet our fortune so tight as to make it impregnible, we may by our excessive prudence squeeze out of the life that we are guarding so anxiously all the adventurous quality that makes it worth living. – Randolph Silliman Bourne

Never speak of a rope in the family of one who has been hanged. – Proverb

Prudence and compromise are necessary means, but every man should have an impudent end which he will not compromise. – Charles Horton Cooley