For all men alike, failure is blindness to the strategic element in events; success is readiness for instant action when the opportune moment arrives.

When nature has fully ripened an opportunity man must stretch out his hand and pluck it.

Inventions may be defined as great minds detecting the strategic moment in nature; Galileo finding a lens in the ox's eye; Watt witnessing steam lift an iron lid; Columbus observing an unknown wood drifting upon the shore.

To untold multitudes nature offered these opportune moments for discovery, but only Galileo, Watt and Columbus were ready to seize them.

As for the rest, this is our only answer to nature: "While thy servant was busy here and there, the strategic moment was gone." This majestic principle often appears in history.