It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier. - Robert A. Heinlein

From somewhere, back in my youth, heard Prof say, 'Manuel, when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.' He had been teaching me something he himself did not understand very well — something in math — but had taught me something far more important, a basic principle.

What he did have was a loud voice and no respect for tyrants. Tyrants hate people like that.

When had a slave religion proved anything but an aid to the conqueror? Slaves needed a wailing wall; they went into their temples, prayed to their gods to deliver them from oppression, and came out to work in the fields and factories, relaxed and made harmless by the emotional catharsis of prayer.