If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
Meaning of the quote
"If you don't try new things or take any chances, you might actually end up in a worse situation than if you had taken a risk in the first place. Sometimes, playing it safe is riskier than being bold and trying something new."
About Erica Jong
Erica Jong, an American novelist, satirist, and poet, is best known for her 1973 novel ‘Fear of Flying,’ which sparked controversy for its portrayal of female sexuality and contributed significantly to the development of second-wave feminism. The book has sold over 37 million copies worldwide, making it a literary phenomenon.
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More quotes from Erica Jong
The stones themselves are thick with history, and those cats that dash through the alleyways must surely be the ghosts of the famous dead in feline disguise.
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The trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
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Singularity shows something wrong in the mind.
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Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.
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Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty and I’ll show you a man.
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It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.
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There is still the feeling that women’s writing is a lesser class of writing, that what goes on in the nursery or the bedroom is not as important as what goes on in the battlefield, that what women know about is a less category of knowledge.
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Friends love misery, in fact. Sometimes, especially if we are too lucky or too successful or too pretty, our misery is the only thing that endears us to our friends.
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Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.
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Perhaps all artists were, in a sense, housewives: tenders of the earth household.
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I have accepted fear as a part of life – specifically the fear of change… I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.
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He who can take advice is sometimes superior to him who can give it.
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In a bad marriage, friends are the invisible glue. If we have enough friends, we may go on for years, intending to leave, talking about leaving – instead of actually getting up and leaving.
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You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.
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Men have always detested women’s gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.
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Solitude is un-American.
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Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.
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If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
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You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.
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And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
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Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.
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Men and women, women and men. It will never work.
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Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
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Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.
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Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.
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Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.
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Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy gets the Catholic Church. America gets Hollywood.
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No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.
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Where is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God.
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I write lustily and humorously. It isn’t calculated; it’s the way I think. I’ve invented a writing style that expresses who I am.
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