I am just that kind of fool. I hereby state, flatly and unequivocally, that some facts of life are eternal. They are human facts, to be sure. _Mutatus mutandus_, they probably apply to each intelligent race on each inhabited planet in the universe; but I do not insist on that point. What I do declare is that man, the child of Earth, lives by certain principles which are immutable. They include:
1. Parkinson's Laws:
(First) Work increases to occupy all organization available to do it.
(Second) Expenditures rise with income.
2. Sturgeon's Revelation:
Ninety percent of _everything_ is crud.
3. Murphy's Law:
Anything that can go wrong, will.
4. The Fourth Law of Thermodynamics:
Everything takes longer and costs more.
Poul Anderson, Author's Note to "The Three-Cornered Wheel" (written 1966) republished in _The Van Rijn Method_, Hank Davis editor, (2009)
