Crisis Quotes

• The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Life, Writing

  Speech in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 12, 1959.

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• You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that: it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

  Rahm Emanuel

  Mean, Opportunity, Thinking

  "Cancer Makes Strange Bedfellows" by Dan Duffy, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 19, 2013.

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• Crisis moments create opportunity. Problems and crises ignite our greatest creativity and thought leadership as it forces us to focus on things outside the norm.

  Sam Cawthorn

  Creativity, Positivity, Opportunity

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• Successful people recognize crisis as a time for change - from lesser to greater, smaller to bigger.

  Edwin Louis Cole

  Successful, People, Literature

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• When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Success, Encouraging

  Speech to United Negro College Fund, Indianapolis, Ind., 12 Apr. 1959

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• Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.

  Milton Friedman

  Change, Real, Lying

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.14, University of Chicago Press

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• Nobody but radicals have ever accomplished anything in a great crisis.

  James A. Garfield

  Accomplished, Radical

  "The Diary of James A. Garfield: 1875-1877". Book by James Abram Garfield, 1983.

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• We sometimes emphasize the danger in a crisis without focusing on the opportunities that are there. We should feel a great sense of urgency because it is the most dangerous crisis we have ever faced, by far. But it also provides us with opportunities to do a lot of things we ought to be doing for other reasons anyway. And to solve this crisis we can develop a shared sense of moral purpose.

  Al Gore

  Opportunity, Focus, Environmental

  "Larry King Live", transcripts.cnn.com. June 13, 2006.

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• Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.

  Milton Friedman

  Real, Lying, Taken

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.14, University of Chicago Press

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• Consider calling it a challenge rather than calling it a crisis.

  Mary Anne Radmacher

  Sweet, Challenges, Calling

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• Most crises are not resolved through rhetoric. They are resolved through operations.

  Eric Dezenhall

  Operations, Rhetoric

  "How to Survive a Scandal". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. October 10, 2014.

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• Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.

  Jawaharlal Nehru

  Thinking, Advantage, Pandit

  Jawaharlal Nehru, M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, Bal Ram Nanda (1972). “Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Advisory Board: M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, and B. R. Nanda; General Editor: S. Gopal”

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• We've got to be judged by how we do in times of crisis

  Johnnie Cochran

  Times Of Crisis, Judged

  18 Copy quote

• Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.

  Ashleigh Brilliant

  Work, Political, Relaxation

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• We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.

  Tennessee Williams

  Fire, House, Looks

  Tennessee Williams (1971). “The Theatre of Tennessee Williams: The milk train doesn't stop here anymore. Kingdom of Earth (The seven descents of Myrtle). Small craft warnings. The two-character play”, p.107, New Directions Publishing

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• Every great crisis of human history is a pass of Thermopylae, and there is always a Leonidas and his three hundred to die in it, if they can not conquer.

  George William Curtis

  Three, Conquer, Hundred

  "The Call of Freedom". "Orations and Addresses" by George William Curtis, www.bartleby.com. 1894.

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• You don't make your character in a crisis, you exhibit it.

  Oren Arnold

  Character, Exhibits

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• These are the times that try men's souls.

  Thomas Paine

  Veterans Day, Time, Motivation

  The American Crisis, 19 Dec. 1776

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• Every crisis offers you extra desired power.

  William Moulton Marston

  Power, Challenges, Extras

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• I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, Money, Hands

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• The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word "crisis." One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Writing, Positive Thinking, Opportunity

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• I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Truth

  Abraham Lincoln (1999). “The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Treasury of Quotations, Anecdotes, and Observations”, Gramercy

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• I began drinking alcohol at the age of thirteen and gave it up in my fifty sixth year; it was like going straight from puberty to a mid-life crisis.

  George Montgomery

  Drinking, Years, Alcohol

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• I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a will to renewal. This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of crises - of rupture, repudiation and resistance. When there is no crisis, there is stagnation, petrifaction and death. All thought, all art is aggressive.

  Eugene Ionesco

  Art, Believe, Rupture

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• David Brinkley was an icon of modern broadcast journalism, a brilliant writer who could say in a few words what the country needed to hear during times of crisis, tragedy and triumph.

  Tom Brokaw

  Country, Icons, Tragedy

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