the idea that you can make life stick to…
Page 56 the idea that you can make life stick to a plan is an allusion. Chance tears through everything, sometimes with the force of a hurricane.
— from Takeoff Into Chaos · Art of the Good Life
In the book
"Only one thing is certain — that nothing is certain. And nothing is more wretched, or more arrogant, than man." — Pliny the Elder (Sample epigraph — or use your own line; you put it well yourself in, that the idea life will hold still and stick to a plan is an illusion, because chance tears through everything, sometimes with the force of a hurricane.) In the last chapter we stood at the landing and looked back down the whole length of the flight. […] The first and largest is waiting for the sky to clear before you will fly. The belief that you can make life hold still and conform to your plan is an illusion; chance tears through everything. You cannot control that you will arrive in Los Angeles today — you can only intend Los Angeles, take the prudent steps of buying the ticket and getting to the gate, and then accept that the rest is weather. — Takeoff Into Chaos