Where’s Nadine?” “She went out for a walk the other day and didn’t come back.” “Really.” I tried to sound surprised. “No sweat,” he said. “Pussy may well be the only true renewable resource, Leo. I’ve got another one lined up for when I get back.” I had to admire a man with that kind of insight and planning.

I was alone, without a single cent, in an unknown country. If I'd learned anything from last year's ill-fated adventures, though, it was not to get overwhelmed by minor inconveniences.

Experience has taught me," said Peter (...) "that no situation finds Bunter unprepared. That he should have procured The Times this morning by the simple expedient of asking the milkman to request the postmistress to telephone to Broxford and have it handed to the 'bus-conductor to be dropped at the post-office and brought up by the little girl who delivers the telegrams is a trifling example of his resourceful energy.

Being Danish, all you have is your supple grip and your light touch. There are plenty of places in the world where the guest who extends a weaponless hand is the most welcome. A man from a small and weak country is as good as stateless. Just wave your Danish flag. They won't see a white cross against a red background as a crusading banner; they'll just see it as a white cloth. So wrap yourself in its innocence, lao-yeh.

We call you uneducated when you have 50-5000 friends on Facebook and you are still broke

Embrace the empowering belief that you can always find a way. Resourceful people know that even though a solution may not be immediately obvious, it probably exists.

When Hitler declared war on the United States, he was betting that German soldiers, raised up in the Hitler Youth, would always out fight American soldiers, brought up in the Boy Scouts. He lost that bet. The Boy Scouts had been taught how to figure their way out of their own problems.

There is nothing higher-class than real craftsmanship, diversity, originality and the service of skilled human hands.

We may not be able to control the events, but we can always control our response to them. We need to ensure that our perspective is an empowering and resourceful one

I didn't have a drill, so I had to make my own. First I heated a long nail in the fire, then drove it through a half a maize cob, creating a handle. I placed the nail back on the coals until it became red hot, then used it to bore holes into both sets of plastic blades.