Quotes About Preparation

In war, no matter how much you plan and prepare and practice, when the big day actually arrives, you still can't find your ass with both hands.

Sergeant Bobby Shaftoe, USMC, pours some beans into the grinder and starts to belabor the crank. A black flurry begins to accumulate in the coffeepot below. He has learned to make this stuff the Swedish way, using an egg to settle the grounds.

It is what you don't expect," he'd said, "that most needs looking for.

But the rest of our lives will happen in the future, Randy, so we might as well get with the program now.

Ivy said, "Had we known that it was going to come down, so suddenly, to seven surviving fertile women, we would have had every healthy male masturbating into test tubes for the last three years. We'd have looked for ways to keep it all frozen. But we never imagined it would come to this.

I created opportunities, in case we might need them.

It is what you don't expect," he'd said, "that most needs looking for." "Do

the scheduled launch, he had flown to Baikonur, bringing

one quarter of your life is spent as a minor; you might as well make the best of it.

Geddy once joked, 'You're the only guy I know who rehearses to rehearse!

The time was 7:40 A.M. I reached for the phone. "Do you have your axe?" came the voice on the other end. It was Mad Dog. "Yes." "Is your axe sharp?" "No, but I can sharpen it while you're driving here." "How about your knife?" "Got it." "Everything needs to be nice and sharp.

Back then, I had no idea that I'd ever feel unsafe in America or be preparing for disaster myself. We seemed to stand monolithic and invulnerable at the center of the political, cultural, and moral universe, unchallenged as the world's lone superpower. For

A man only unsheathes his jambiyah if he is going to use it.

Never ask a man if he wants a bulletproof vest or a pair of mittens. Just make him put it on.

Before you go on any mission, you need to understand what you know, identify what you don't know, and try to guess what could go wrong.

Use a gun that works every time. As George Washington said, 'All skill is in vain when an angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket.

Before you go on any mission, you need to understand what you know, identify what you don't know, and try to guess what could go wrong. And finally, getting there is only half the fun; you need a clear path home.

Stories, like food, lose their flavor if cooked in a hurry.

no man prepar'd for it; no man consider'd it would come like a Thief in the night, exactly as it happens in the case of death.'74

The Russian commander whose ship was torpedoed by SMS Emden off Penang on October 28, 1914, was certainly unprepared for the new age of global conflict. Only twelve rounds of ammunition were ready on deck; but there were sixty Chinese prostitutes below.

It is a common fault of men not to reckon on storms in fair weather.

To defeat Fortune, men must anticipate such evils before they arise, and take prudent steps to avoid them. When the waters have already risen, it is too late to build dikes and embankments.

It is a common fault not to anticipate storms when the sea is calm.

The Romans recognized potential difficulties in advance and always remedied them in time. They never let problems develop just so they could escape a war, for they knew that such wars cannot be avoided, only postponed to the advantage of others.