I open with a clock striking, to beget an awful attention in the audience – it also marks the time, which is four o clock in the morning, and saves a description of the rising sun, and a great deal about gilding the eastern hemisphere. – Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. Murphys First Corollary If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire. – George Edward Woodberry