Folding Knife

by K.J. Parker

“War’s just violence, and violence is an admission of failure. I don’t like thinking about it.”

“Do something, even if it’s pointless. The phantom of achievement, swathed in the illusion of activity.”

“A good deal is where both sides make a profit,” he said. “That way, both sides will want to deal with each other again. It’s better to keep the other man happy and make ten per cent ten times than rip the other man off and make thirty per cent once.”