Abraham Tucker

"The experience of those who have gone before us, conveyed by instruction, shortens our road to knowledge, and by lifting us over a considerable part of the way, leaves us in fresh vigor and spirits to pursue the rest, or run further lengths beyond. For at our entrance into life everything is new, everything unknown, so there is no ground whereon to build a rational conviction, nor other reason to be had for assenting to anything, than because we were taught it. And the like may be said of any particular art or science, wherein docility is the first requisite enabling us to make a proficiency: for judgment comes from experience, and experience is only gotten by practice."