The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-4)

by T.H. White

He was one of those people who would be neither a follower nor a leader, but only an aspiring heart, impatient in the failing body which imprisoned it.

Education is experience, and the essence of experience is self-reliance.”

“Love is a trick played on us by the forces of evolution. Pleasure is the bait laid down by the same. There is only power. Power is of the individual mind, but the mind’s power is not enough. Power of the body decides everything in the end, and only Might is Right.

But what creature could be so low as to go about in bands, to murder others of its own blood?”

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something.

Perhaps we all give the best of our hearts uncritically—to those who hardly think about us in return.