The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.
Hasten slowly.
Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father. [Matthew 18:10]
— Bible
The torment of precautions often exceeds often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.
Look twice before you leap.
Whenever our neighbor's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.
To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action, when there's more reason to fear than to hope.
Be slow of tongue and quick of eye.
Every human being has, like Socrates, an attendant spirit; and wise are they who obey its signals. If it does not always tell us what to do, it always cautions us what not to do.
Those who prepared for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy.
Beware the hobby that eats.
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.
Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.
Caution has its place, no doubt, but we cannot refuse our support to a serious venture which challenges the whole of the personality. If we oppose it, we are trying to suppress what is best in man --his daring and his aspirations. And should we succeed, we should only have stood in the way of that invaluable experience which might have given a meaning to life. What would have happened if Paul had allowed himself to be talked out of his journey to Damascus?
Set the foot down with distrust on the crust of the world -- it is thin.
Caution is the parent of safety.
— Proverb
When a fox preaches, take care of your geese.
— Proverb
Always count the cost.
Of all the thirty-six alternatives, running away is best.
Don't dance on a volcano.
Beware of one who has nothing to lose.
If one has to jump a stream and knows how wide it is, he will not jump. If he does not know how wide it is, he will jump, and six times out of ten he will make it.
Beware of silent dogs and still waters.
Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
He that is over -- cautious will accomplish little.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, and that craves wary walking.
To fear the worst oft cures the worse.
It is a good thing to learn caution from the misfortunes of others.
Beware of all enterprises that require a new set of clothes.
Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.
Caution is not cowardly. Carelessness is not courage
A mousetrap always provides free cheese.
Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before, Bokonon tells us. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.
Vigilance is the virtue of vice.
Caution is the confidential agent of selfishness.