Too Awesome to Use/Quotes

"We are certainly in great need," answered Caspian. "But it is hard to be sure we are at our greatest. Supposing there came an even worse need and we had already used it?"

"By that argument," said Nikabrik, "your Majesty will never use it until it is too late."

—C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

There's an insidious thought that frequently goes through the minds of gamers that goes "But I might need it later" - the niggling little doubt that prevents you from using all your most powerful insurance policies in case there's some kind of no-claims bonus at the end of it all. So we have scenarios where you're sitting on a nuclear stockpile to shame North Korea and are throwing peas at a giant robot crab, on the off chance that there might be a bigger giant robot crab just around the corner.

—Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, Zero Punctuation Review for Mercenaries2

...in nearly every RPG, you'll encounter the same problem: Eventually, you'll wind up with an item just as overpowered as it is rare. It's almost too good to use. So what do you do with it? The answer, as every gamer out there has just quietly realized, is "nothing." You save it. Forever.

—Robert Brockway, Cracked.com

It doesn't help that the game requires judicial use of special abilities, which consume magic points. And I'm one of those guys who hates to use limited resources or special items, because I'm always "saving" them for later. No matter how rough things get I always refuse to use my elixir or super-powerful attack because I assume the next battle is going to be even worse, and that's when I'll really need it.

—Doctor Sparkle, Chrontendo, on Holy Diver

"What we have here, General, is a binary solution set. Choice one, we maneuver the birds [satellites] and risk the fuel loss. Choice two, we don't maneuver the birds and risk having them taken out."

—A colonel at NORAD sums up the dilemma, Red Storm Rising