Excerpt from Outward Bound, the adventure program established in the 1940s in the US to encourage youth to develop into compassionate and resilient individuals who will impact their worlds positively.
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To express feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
BUT RISKS must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who asks nothing; does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are a slave.
They have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.