I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.
Winston Churchill

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
Abraham Lincoln

The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.
William Shakespeare

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
Thomas Jefferson

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Steve Jobs

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.
Mahatma Gandhi

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
Aristotle

I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem just to avoid violence.
Malcolm X

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.
Henry David Thoreau

The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.
Lao Tzu

Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
William Blake

If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.
George Washington

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.
Khalil Gibran

Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Dale Carnegie

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
Mae West

Ain't no man can avoid being born average, but there ain't no man got to be common.
Satchel Paige

We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.
Napoleon Bonaparte

We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities.
Norman Vincent Peale