Worst Case Scenario Quotes

• One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.

  Randy Pausch

  Risk, Management, Hell

  Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (2008). “The last lecture”, Hyperion Books

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• In the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore got more votes than George W. Bush, but still lost the election. The Supreme Court's ruling in Florida gave Bush that pivotal state, and doomed Gore to lose the Electoral College. That odd scenario - where the candidate with the most votes loses - has happened three times in U.S. history.

  Juan Williams

  College, Florida, Presidential

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• Always plan for the fact that no plan ever goes according to plan.

  Simon Sinek

  Facts, Plans, According To Plan

  Twitter post from Jul 07, 2009

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• If you train worst case scenarios consistently, they will no longer be worst case scenarios

  Rener Gracie

  Training, Martial Arts, Cases

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• I learned to embrace risk, as long as it was well thought out and, in a worst-case scenario, I'd still land on my feet.

  Eli Broad

  Learning, Land, Feet

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• Always play for the worst case scenario..If it is the best you'll win anyway

  David Trott

  Winning, Play, Advertising

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• Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I'm a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it 'the eaten by wolves factor.' If I do something, what's the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don't worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do.

  Randy Pausch

  Attitude, Optimistic, Thinking

  Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (2008). “The last lecture”, Hyperion Books

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• I would visualize the best- and worst-case scenarios. Whether I get disqualified or my goggles fill up with water or I lose my goggles or I come in last, I'm ready for anything.

  Michael Phelps

  Sports, Water, Lasts

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• I highly recommend inviting the worst-case scenario into your life.

  Portia de Rossi

  Cases, Inviting, Scenarios

  Portia de Rossi (2010). “Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain”, p.304, Simon and Schuster

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• The future is unwritten. there are best case scenarios. There are worst-case scenarios. both of them are great fun to write about if you' re a science fiction novelist, but neither of them ever happens in the real world. What happens in the real world is always a sideways-case scenario. World-changing marvels to us, are only wallpaper to our children.

  Bruce Sterling

  Children, Fun, Real

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• The taste for worst-case scenarios reflects the need to master fear of what is felt to be uncontrollable. It also expresses an imaginative complicity with disaster.

  Susan Sontag

  Needs, Taste, Disaster

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• I'm a worst-case scenario person. I'm only interested in a story because I kind of go, like a magnet, to the worst thing that can happen.

  John Irving

  Stories, Kind, Cases

  "Why novelist John Irving's latest protagonist is a fiction writer". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. November 3, 2015.

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• That's the way I look at things - if you focus on the worst case scenario and it happens, you've lived it twice. It sounds like Pollyanna-ish tripe but I'm telling you - it works for me.

  Michael J. Fox

  Focus, Sound, Looks

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• The minute I spend any energy defending myself, explaining myself, or in the worst case scenario, trying to please those who are criticizing me, I will, you know, just fall off a cliff.

  Amanda Palmer

  Fall, Trying, Energy

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• Reassurance can actually exacerbate anxiety: when you reassure your friend that the worst-case scenario he fears probably won't occur, you inadvertently reinforce his belief that it would be catastrophic if it did. You are tightening the coil of his anxiety, not loosening it. All to often, the Stoics point out, things will not turn out for the best.

  Oliver Burkeman

  Anxiety, Would Be, Belief

  "Happiness is a glass half empty" by Oliver Burkeman, www.theguardian.com. June 15, 2012.

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• I find some comfort in running through the worst-case scenario in my mind and seeing how it's all going to go down.

  Laurel Nakadate

  Running, Mind, Comfort

  Interview with Scott Indrisek, believermag.com. October 1, 2006.

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• My friends call me Miss Worst Case Scenario.

  Patricia Cornwell

  Missing, Cases, Call Me

  "Crime does pay". Interview with Simon Hattenstone, www.theguardian.com. May 13, 2001.

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• Whenever I take a position, I like to imagine what it would be like under the worst-case scenario. In doing so, I minimize the confusion if that situation actually develops. In my view, losses are a very important part of trading. When a loss happens, I believe in embracing it.

  Gil Blake

  Believe, Loss, Views

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• Obama seemed poised to realign American politics after his stunning 2008 victory. But the economy remains worse than even the administration's worst-case scenarios, and the long legislative battles over health care reform, financial services reform and the national debt and deficit have taken their toll. Obama no longer looks invincible.

  Dee Dee Myers

  Taken, Long, Victory

  "Romney's unlikely role model" by Dee Dee Myers, www.politico.com. October 24, 2011.

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• The worst case scenario is you really like someone's work, then you meet them and they're a self-involved, entitled douchebag.

  Moby

  Self, Douchebags, Cases

  Source: thequietus.com

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• I realize that after decades of positive thinking the notion of realism, of things as they are, may seem a little quaint. ... When the stakes are high enough and the risks obvious, we still turn to people who can be counted on to understand those risks and prepare for worst-case scenarios. A chief of state does not want to hear a general in the field say that he 'hopes' to win tomorrow's battle or that he's 'visualizing victory'.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Positive Thinking, Winning, Reality

  Barbara Ehrenreich (2009). “Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America”, p.198, Metropolitan Books

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• If the javelin had hit me 10cm to the left, it would have punctured my lung, 20cm higher the throat, which would have been the worst-case scenario. Just 1cm higher and it would have hit bone, muscle and tendon and that would have been the end of my sporting career.

  Roman Sebrle

  Careers, Javelin, Bones

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• Horror writers are specialists in the worst case scenario

  Richard Laymon

  Horror, Cases, Specialists

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• Everyone needs to remember that Ebola was not a worst-case scenario. Preparedness for the future means preparedness for a very severe disease that spreads via the airborne route or can be transmitted during the incubation period, before an infected person shows telltale signs of illness.

  Margaret Chan

  Mean, Ebola, Disease

  "Are We Prepared? An Exclusive Interview with WHO Director-General Margaret Chan". “Next Outbreak” with Joanne Silberner, www.pbs.org. September 28, 2015.

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• A couple days before the stunts, if I'm doing something particularly dangerous, I will go over every worst-case scenario in my head, like this could happen, this could happen, this could happen, this could happen. I try to think about that to where it's ingrained in me.

  Johnny Knoxville

  Couple, Thinking, Trying

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