Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish: There aren't a thousand blades. There aren't even two hundred. I've counted.
Lord Varys: Heh. I'm sure you have. Ugly old thing.
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish: It has a certain appeal.
Lord Varys: The Lysa Arryn of chairs. Shame you had to settle for your second choice.
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish: Early days, my friend. It is flattering really, you feeling such dread at the prospect of me getting what I want.
Lord Varys: Thwarting you has never been my primary ambition, I promise you. Although, who doesn't like to see their friends fail now and then.
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish: You're so right. For instance, when I thwarted your plan to give Sansa Stark to the Tyrells, if I'm going to be honest, I did feel an unmistakable sense of enjoyment there. But your confidant, the one who fed you information about my plans, the one you swore to protect... you didn't bring her any enjoyment, and she didn't bring me any enjoyment. She was a bad investment on my part. Luckily, I have a friend who wanted to try something new. Something daring. And he was so grateful to me for providing this fresh experience.
Lord Varys: I did what I did for the good of the realm.
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish: The realm. Do you know what the realm is? It's the thousand blades of Aegon's enemies, a story we agree to tell each other over and over, until we forget that it's a lie.
Lord Varys: But what do we have left, once we abandon the lie? Chaos? A gaping pit waiting to swallow us all.
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish: Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some, are given a chance to climb. They refuse, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.
I think I can relate to it. You see this is typically how a stock on news behaves. There is exaggeration and passing of information and lies. It goes for wild asymmetric moves away from the mean. This is the time when the stock is so much mispriced and things around it is simply chaotic. While others see the situation as a gaping pit, I would like to see it as a ladder. Many people who try to make money out of this situation fail badly and never try again. For markets can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent. Truly, the stock price fall breaks them. And many people are given a chance to take the stock at the right time in a platter - refuse and cling to notions like there will be another opportunity, or for that matter the chance isn't real. They are simply stuck with illusions and fears. But the heart of the situation cannot be summarized with these two sentences - Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.
Too much! ;-)