Writers who try to write from the point of view of a character who is smarter than they are should consider asking that character if this is a good idea before proceeding.
That's so true... I have read many books where one of the characters is a a genius level+ entity. They always sound like gibberish or they stretch logic to the point of making the whole story unbelievable. It's very rare to see a well written genius character and realize that everything they did, even the mistakes they made, were part of a greater plan.
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
Mother nature is a b**ch.
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
Whenever a person says to you that they are as innocent as can be in all concerning money, look well after your own money, for they are dead certain to collar it if they can.
Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration.
-- D. H. Lawrence
History is lived forward, but is written in retrospect. We know the end before we consider the beginning, and we can never wholly recapture what it was to know the beginning only.
-- C. V. Wedgewood
A black or malign disposition, an effeminate disposition; a wild inhuman disposition, a sheepish disposition, a childish disposition; a blockish, a false, a scurril, a fraudulent, a tyrannical: what then? If he be a stranger in the world, that knows not the things that are in it; why not be a stranger as well, that wonders at the things that are done in it?
"Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?
You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It's nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there -- that's disgrace.
The harder you're thrown, why the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn't the fact that you're licked that counts,
It's how did you fight -- and why?
And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,
And whether he's slow or spry,
It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts,
But only how did you die?"
"It is well enough that people do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
"Don't find fault, find a remedy."
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
Comments
-- How NOT to Write a Novel
O'Toole's commentary: Murphy was an optimist.
-- Warden Lewis E. Lawes
- Inspector Bucket, Bleak House (Charles Dickens)
-John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar (from the Hipcrime Vocab)
--- Me
--- Also Me
-Gracie Allen
-- D. H. Lawrence
-- Wael
Absolutely not playing PoE II right now. :P
-- Plutarch
If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
-- Epicurus
There is nothing that exists so great or marvelous that over time mankind does not admire it less and less.
-- Lucretius
-- Noah Porter
-- Jenny Holzer
-- Niccolo Machiavelli
-- C. V. Wedgewood
-- Marcus Aurelius
-- Brintnall's Second Law
-- Kin Hubbard
-- John Luther
-- Sam Levenson
– Woody Allen
(Yeah, I can relate to this one... Alot)
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
-- Richard Feynman
My hotel is as clean as an elven a**e.
-- Anonymous
-- Herbert Spencer
-- Mike Leavitt
- John Wayne
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?
You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It's nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there -- that's disgrace.
The harder you're thrown, why the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn't the fact that you're licked that counts,
It's how did you fight -- and why?
And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,
And whether he's slow or spry,
It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts,
But only how did you die?"
Edmund Vance Cooke
"Don't find fault, find a remedy."
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
- Henry Ford
-- Art Spander
a. Somebody else's diet.
b. How to make money for a worthy cause.
c. The Kardashians.
- Larry Niven