The surest way to set negative forces in motion is to become arrogant. If nothing else, death precludes arrogance, because sooner or later death eliminates everything about which a person has to be arrogant.

But long before death, life also does a pretty good job of making a shambles of arrogance. That’s why it’s always a good insurance policy to remember the old adage about being nice to people on the way up, as they have a nasty habit of being quite vindictive to the pompous individual who is headed south.