“Only the incompetent wait until the last extremity to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use anything, even prayer.”

— H. Beam Piper

A Slave is a Slave (1962)
Context: Count Erskyll said nothing for a moment. He was opposed to the use of force. Force, he believed, was the last resort of incompetence; he had said so frequently enough since this operation had begun. Of course, he was absolutely right, though not in the way he meant. Only the incompetent wait until the last extremity to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use anything, even prayer.

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H. Beam Piper11

American science fiction writer 1904–1964

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