William Beckford quotes:

No course was open to me save to leap, with eyes self-bound, into the yawning abyss of the future.

If you seem to be happy in this place of solitude, you will acquire a great reputation for wisdom, and I know, by my own experience, that under the cloak of a great reputation it is possible to hide whole treasures of folly. (The Story of Princess Zulkais and the Prince Kalilah)