I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
Patrick Henry, speech to the Virginia Convention, Richmond, Virginia, March 23, 1775. William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, 9th ed., p. 138–39 (1836, reprinted 1970). Language altered to first person.