The discipline of desire is the background of character.

Let us suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas; how comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience.

Words, in their primary or immediate signification, stand for nothing but the ideas in the mind of him who uses them.

We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

This is my destiny — I'm supposed to do this, dammit! Don't tell me what I can and can't do!

All rising to great place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man's self whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed.

The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.