To understand who people really are, start a fire. When everything is going fine, you see only the safest parts of people's character. It's only when something is burning that you find out who people really are. Of course, it's wrong to set a fire on purpose, but if you have a small fire already burning, let it burn and see who, if anyone, complains, runs away, or comes to help. Similar truths are discovered by breaking rules: you need to break some to learn which are just for show and which ones matter.

