I always have a fallback position whenever I take a risk. If all else fails, I'll die horribly,
at great length, and in great pain. Mind you, it's not a good fallback position...
God, give me the strength to change the things that can be changed, the strength to change
the things that probably can't be changed, and the strength to change that which can't possibly
be changed. Hey, if You can't work miracles, what the hell good are You?
...if you choose how to do it at random, you will screw it up...if you're careful about how
you do it, you'll probably screw it up. Still, "probably" is better than "will."
The most important lesson in karate is running. The first thing you do in a fight, is to
turn and run away. Run for at least a mile, preferably two or three. If he's still chasing you, he's
probably out of breath by then. If it's still worth fighting about, you turn around and beat him up.
Just once, I'd like to have an enemy against whom nonviolence would be a workable option -- workable in the sense of me not ending up dancing on the end of a spear or cut into tiny, bite-sized pieces.
When you say goodbye to a friend, assume that one of you is going to die before you ever get to see one another again. If you want to leave something unsaid, fine...but be prepared to leave it unsaid forever.
Guy I used to know once said, "The government isn't best which governs least -- it's the best
government that needs to govern least." I'd swipe it as one of Slovotsky's laws, but it's
just a bit too serious, and maybe a smidgen too true.
Probably the most difficult decision real humans have to make is whether something is necessarily
brutal or unnecessarily brutal. I wish there was something funny about that, but there you have it.
When the Black Camel comes for me, I'm not going to go kicking and screaming -- I am,
however, going to try to talk him out of it, "No, no, you want the other Walter Slovotsky."