From an e-mailer:
My father only ever gave me one piece of advice but it could be universally applied. A good example of this is when my parents dropped me off for college. My mom had a million things to say to me, none of which I remember today.
My father just said: “Don’t do anything stupid.”
Then, he followed that up with, “If you don’t know if it’s stupid or not, it is.”
Curtis