Wow…

I can only smile ruefully when I consider how prepared I was for the adventure that awaited me.  I was not prepared at all.  I had no skills in boxing or jujitsu, not to mention smuggling, crossing boarders illegally, using secret codes, and so on:  skills that would have stood me in good stead in the coming years.  My spiritual preparation for what was ahead was almost equally inadequate.  Is it not said in peacetime the chiefs of staff always prepare their armies as well as possible – for the previous war?  I cannot judge the truth of that, but it is certainly true that conscientious parents always educate their sons for the era that is just over.

–Sebastian Haffner, "Defying Hitler – A Memoir"