Unintended Consequences quotes:

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The law of unintended consequences pushes us ceaselessly through the years, permitting no pause for perspective. -- Richard Schickel
Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful. -- Margaret J. Wheatley
Clearly there are always unintended consequences of any legislative or regulatory act that's taken in the heat of battle. -- Richard Grasso
Probably the most visible example of unintended consequences, is what happens every time humans try to change the natural ecology of a place. -- Margaret J. Wheatley
It is...highly probable that from the very beginning, apart from death, the only ironclad rule of human experience has been the Law of Unintended Consequences. -- Ian Tattersall
It sometimes seems to me that the whole course of English history was one of accident, confusion, chance and unintended consequences - there's no real pattern. -- Peter Ackroyd
Unintended Consequences is full of substance, it is one of the must-read books of the year, and once I finish it I will be giving it a second read through right away. -- Tyler Cowen
If there is one lesson for U.S. foreign policy from the past 10 years, it is surely that military intervention can seem simple but is in fact a complex affair with the potential for unintended consequences. -- Fareed Zakaria
Good intentions can often lead to unintended consequences. It is hard to imagine a law intended for the workforce known to Henry Ford can serve the needs of a workplace shaped by the innovations of Bill Gates. -- Tim Walberg
I hope I'm wrong, but I am afraid that Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy - worse than Vietnam, not in the number who died, but in terms of its unintended consequences and its reverberation throughout the region. -- Madeleine Albright
I think it's brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television - but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent. -- Steve Jobs
All history is the history of unintended consequences. -- T. J. Jackson Lears
I'm just worried about the unintended consequences of the laws. -- Mary Katharine Ham
There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. -- Steve Jobs
Every government intervention [in the marketplace] creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions... -- Ludwig von Mises
Unintended consequences, he thought miserably. He was angry at his anger, the way it surged up and took over. -- Jeanne DuPrau
Call me an extremist but killing a few hundred million people seems like the sort of method that might have unintended consequences. -- James Nicoll
Happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy - it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself. -- Viktor E. Frankl
The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself anymore. Anger is. And when anger is the boss, you get unintended consequences. -- Jeanne DuPrau
Any prediction worth its weigh would consider the spiritual, material, and unintended consequences of introducing a new technology to the world. It would proceed from the kind of understanding Chellis articulated: Life is Whole. -- Stephanie Mills
The manufactured consensus of the IPCC has had the unintended consequences of distorting the science, elevating the voices of scientists that dispute the consensus, and motivating actions by the consensus scientists and their supporters that have diminished the public's trust in the IPCC. -- Judith Curry
Unintended consequences get to the heart of why you never really understand an adaptive problem until you have solved it. Problems morph and "solutions" often point to deeper problems. In social life, as in nature, we are walking on a trampoline. Every inroad reconfigures the environment we tread on. -- Richard Pascale
The flow of action continually produces consequences which are unintended by actors, and these unintended consequences also may form unacknowledged conditions of actions in a feedback fashion. Human history is created by intentional activities but is not an intended project; it persistently eludes efforts to bring it under conscious direction. -- Anthony Giddens
With calm, knowledgeable precision, Daniel Ziblatt wades into the adjacent swamps of federalism and nineteenth-century European history, emerging with hands full of gems. Beneath the tangle of great statesmen and national culture he discovers conflicting regional political interests, sharp regional variations in political capacity, fearful defenses against excessive democracy, coercive conquest of weak states, and unintended consequences galore. Read, think, and learn. -- Charles Tilly
Politics is tricky; it cuts both ways. Every time you make a choice, it has unintended consequences. -- Stone Gossard
Each money-printing exercise brings about unintended consequences. These unintended consequences are higher inflation rates than had no money been printed. -- Marc Faber
We have a lot of talented people in this Congress, and we can avoid a lot of unintended consequences if we just included them. -- Daniel Webster
We need different perspectives here in Washington - someone who has private-sector experience, somebody who's actually created jobs, manufactures products, understands the incentives and disincentives, the intended and unintended consequences of legislation. -- Ron Johnson
The use of large-scale military force in volatile regions of underdeveloped countries is difficult to do right, has major unintended consequences and rarely turns out to be quick, effective, controlled and short lived. -- Dennis C. Blair
I believe that life is chaotic, a jumble of accidents, ambitions, misconceptions, bold intentions, lazy happenstances, and unintended consequences, yet I also believe that there are connections that illuminate our world, revealing its endless mystery and wonder. -- David Maraniss
New Zealand needs to balance its environmental responsibilities with its economic opportunities, because the risk is that if you don't do that - and you want to lead the world - then you might end up getting unintended consequences. -- John Key
The reason I am so negative about the Federal Reserve's policies is that they only target core inflation and argue that they can't identify bubbles, but when each bubble bursts, they flood the system with liquidity that brings about unintended consequences. -- Marc Faber
Lawmakers who interfere with commerce and the normal creation of jobs in an economy run the risk of doing harm rather than good. Unintended consequences from regulating or legislating to achieve a goal can occur and cause havoc in the markets or an economy. -- Mark Skousen
God always saves the world from the consequences of unintended errors of men who live in fear of Him. -- Mahatma Gandhi
parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences. -- Stacy Schiff
The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history. -- Niall Ferguson
The greatest thing that science teaches you is the law of unintended consequences. -- Ann Druyan
Even limited military actions end up carrying with them great costs and unintended consequences. -- Barack Obama
I do think that I have a better sense of how military action can result in unintended consequences. -- Barack Obama
Globalization is not a monolithic force but an evolving set of consequences - some good, some bad and some unintended. It is the new reality. -- John B. Larson
The reality is that every time we manipulate nature's rhythms, we create unintended consequences that then require us to make still further changes."~ Glenn Aparicio Parry -- Glenn Aparicio Parry

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