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Be prepared.
Always expect the unexpected.
Owing to past neglect, in the face of the plainest warnings, we have now entered upon a period of danger. The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.... We cannot avoid this period, we are in it now ... Unless ... this house resolves to find out the truth for itself, it will have committed an act of abdication of duty without parallel.
Winston Churchill, in the House of Commons, 1936
It is better to deal with problems before they arise.
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin
All the following advice presupposes that whoever faces catastrophe takes a deep breath and makes up his mind to have a really determined go at beating the odds.
The secret to correct prediction is to shun wishful thinking and coldly believe the Cold Equations. Shun pessimistic thinking, too — as I am doing and as I shall presently prove to you. Treat the world the way a research scientist treats a problem — examine the data, try to organize, try to predict coldly and logically. Not what you want to have happen — but what can happen and what is mostly likely to happen — and then, and only then, what you yourself can do about it, to make things easier or better or safer for you and your kids.
You don't cope with a cancer by forgetting it, and hoping it will go away.
You don't avoid a traffic accident by closing your eyes.
What are the facts? Again and again and again — what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what 'the stars foretell,' avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable 'verdict of history,' — what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your only clue. Get the facts!
Robert Heinlein,
Time Enough for Love
Another important facet of survival is avoidance. As a pilot and friend once told me, "I don't care how good a bush pilot you are, the weather will ultimately win. It's learning to recognize a bad situation in advance that's important, not being savvy enough to fly out of it." And that cannot be over-stressed. Avoiding a life-threatening situation is always preferable to surviving it.
You may nor be able to do everything, but you can do something, and something is better than nothing.
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Robert, there are always survivors — no matter how bad it is, there are always survivors.
Willy Ley, to Robert Heinlein
Mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living.
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.
Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
Make preparations in advance ... you never have trouble if you are prepared for it.
Theodore Roosevelt
But if you didn't —
Do what you can with what you've got wherever you are.
Theodore Roosevelt
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.
Beverly Sills
In times of great human suffering, silence is the voice of complicity; neutrality, a crime.
Elie Wiesel, writer and Holocaust survivor
Ignorance is definitely not bliss! It is a killer. The more you know and understand, the better you can cope with any situation. Knowledge will give you confidence and experience will increase your abilities.
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