The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives.

I have a catch-phrase to describe my plot-generation technique -- 'What's the worst possible thing I can do to these people?'

When I go down into the ground at last, as God is my judge, I pray my best-beloved may have better to say of me than, "He didn't hit me."

Yes," Vorkosigan agreed, "I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction.

I am not a fate worse than death, dammit!

All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, a scientist, an artist, or an entrepreneur. In service of their goals, they lay down time, energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self.

One learns better than to hand one's choices to fear. With age, with every wound and scar, one learns.