If trouble comes when you least expect it then maybe the thing to do is to always expect it.

The line turns a familiar proverb—misfortune arriving “when you least expect it”—into a bleakly pragmatic rule for living. It suggests that surprise is not the real problem; unpreparedness is. By choosing to “always expect” trouble, one cultivates vigilance, emotional hardening, and a kind of stoic readiness that can blunt the shock of inevitable setbacks. The logic is double-edged: constant expectation of harm may protect against naïveté, but it also risks trapping a person in perpetual anxiety or cynicism. In a McCarthy-like moral universe, the quote reads as survival counsel: assume the world is indifferent and contingency is cruel, and plan your inner life accordingly.