An anonymous speaker once said, "If you take risks, you may fail. But if you don't take risks, you will surely fail. The greatest risk of all is to do nothing." In other words, even if you're not sure that something good will come from taking a risk, you should still do it because you will never know what could have happened. Two works of literature that prove this statement to be true are the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand.

In the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the main character, Mr. Utterson, has to take many risks in order to protect his good friend, Dr. Jekyll. The major risk he takes in the story is to go looking for Mr. Hyde - Dr. Jekyll is Mr. Hyde's benefactor - after he finds out he trampled a young girl with absolutely no remorse. Mr. Utterson knew he was risking a lot, mainly his life, by going out to look for Mr. Hyde but he also knew he had to do it to protect his friend. If he hadn't taken that risk, he might not have been able to find out all that he did.

In the novel Anthem, the main character, Equality 7-2521, was born into a community where no person - neither male nor female - was considered as an individual. No one got to choose their profession or even who they wanted to be with in a relationship. Everything was chosen for them at birth. Equality 7-2521 took a risk and separated himself from his life in that community. Even though he lost all connections with the people he knew there, he found what he wanted for so long. Through the love of a woman, he found freedom. Had he not gotten away from the community, he would have regretted it because he would have been unhappy.

In conclusion, it has been stated and proven that not taking risks can prove to be the greatest risk of all. The two novels Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and Anthem by Ayn Rand both show that taking risks can help people learn beneficial life lessons.