Jack Reacher's Rules

Sleep when you can, because you never know when you’re going to sleep again.

Accept that you’ll never find a bed that will accommodate your feet as well as your head.

Careful, sleep can be a symptom of caffeine deprivation.

Sleep as much as you can, because tiredness causes more foul-ups than carelessness and stupidity put together.

If you go to sleep fully dressed, you’ll be ready for action when you wake.

You’ll feel safer sleeping with a handgun under your pillow.

“A medical man would say I passed out. I prefer to think I just went to sleep.”

“He set the clock in his head for two hours, and he breathed in once, and he breathed out once, and then he fell asleep, almost instantly.”

Tune in to your circadian rhythms to set your personal internal alarm clock.

Four o’clock in the morning is the best time to attack. In the Army they call it KGB time.

“Clocks in prisons are bizarre. Why measure hours and minutes when people think in years and decades?”

THINGS YOU’LL NEVER HEAR REACHER SAY

Any idea what the time is?

“He knew what time it was to within about twenty seconds. It was an old skill, born of many long wakeful nights on active service.

When you’re waiting for something to happen, you close your body down like a beach house in winter and you let your mind lock on to the steady pace of the passing seconds. It’s like suspended animation. It saves energy and it lifts the responsibility for your heartbeat away from your unconscious brain and passes it on to some kind of a hidden clock. Makes a huge black space for thinking in.

But it keeps you just awake enough to be ready for whatever you need to be ready for.

And it means you always know what time it is.”

“I’ve got no use for possessions. Travel light, travel far.”

Never carry a spare shirt.

Be on as few pieces of paper as it is possible for a human being to be.

“To fill a small bag means selecting, and choosing, and evaluating. Pretty soon I’d have a big bag, and then two or three. A month later I’d be like the rest of you.”

Never have a credit card, real estate, a driver’s license, a car, a wife, children, or an address.

Take one day at a time.

“I’m not a vagrant … I’m a hobo. Big difference.”

Always travel by road—you don’t need ID and can pay with cash.

“Carry a spare shirt and pretty soon you’re carrying spare pants. Then you need a suitcase. Next thing you know, you’ve got a house and a car and a savings plan and you’re filling out all kinds of forms.”

THINGS YOU’LL NEVER SEE REACHER DO

Buy a business-class airline ticket

WHAT TO DO IN THE FACE OF:

STUPIDITY

MISUNDERSTANDING

IMPERTINENT PERSONAL QUESTIONS

EMPTY THREATS

BAD GUYS WHO WON’T TAKE THE HINT AND BACK OFF

Shrug.

“Reacher said nothing.”

If in doubt, say nothing.

Keeping your mouth shut is a devastating weapon.

Your silence will make your opponent want to babble.

Say nothing, do nothing.