I was ready.
In 1997 I lived in Texas where I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a missionary, I spent my time preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. At any given moment, I needed to be ready to share a profound thought usually expounding scripture.
I’ve always been a fan of adages and I collected quotes that I thought were short nuggets of profound wisdom before my mission. The more obscure the reference the better. By the time I left on my mission I had a library of rather exceptional maxims.