Why should there be some sort of virtue always attributed to a frank admission of vice? - Gordon R. Dickson

Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger...

With the situation fully and correctly understood, it becomes entirely reasonable that the very small fraction of a second preceding a violent death could be a trigger to speculative thought.

Exaggeration of confidence," he said, "is a fault in people who don't know their business.