I wouldn’t dare defile Douglas Adam’s memory by not mentioning that you should keep a towel with you at all times, but my second contender is a surprisingly short three-parter:
- never lie.
- never tell the whole truth.
- never pass up a chance to use a real bathroom.
If everywhere you go smells like shit, check your shoes.
So is this intended as kind of a metaphor or is this mainly aimed at people who have literally stepped in real shit?
It’s both
It’s a metaphor for people who smell whipped cream all the time, they should check on top of their head.
Both. It’s like the saying “Governing a big country is like cooking small fish.” (With the explanation that if you keep poking it, it’ll disintegrate) also taught me how to cook fish as well as realpolitik.
The fish advice was most useful.
Pretty sure its a metaphor for being an asshole
This is a metaphor for life in general. If you find that all your interactions are negative, check yourself. Are you the problem in your relationships and interactions? How can you fix that? Clean your shoes.
If everyone around you is an asshole, you’re the asshole.