“Depend upon it, Sir, nothing will come of them!”

Source: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

III, 2302-5
Jewels of Remembrance (1996)

Source: The New Industrial State (1967), Chapter XXXIII, Section 4, p. 375

The Spirit of Revolt (1880)
Context: The direction which the revolution will take depends, no doubt, upon the sum total of the various circumstances that determine the coming of the cataclysm. But it can be predicted in advance, according to the vigor of revolutionary action displayed in the preparatory period by the different progressive parties. … The party which has made most revolutionary propaganda and which has shown most spirit and daring will be listened to on the day when it is necessary to act, to march in front in order to realize the revolution.

Consolation to Apollonius

Nahj al-Balagha

1960s, Freedom From The Known (1969)
Context: You cannot depend upon anybody. There is no guide, no teacher, no authority. There is only you — your relationship with others and with the world — there is nothing else. When you realize this, it either brings great despair, from which comes cynicism and bitterness, or, in facing the fact that you and nobody else is responsible for the world and for yourself, for what you think, what you feel, how you act, all self-pity goes. Normally we thrive on blaming others, which is a form of self-pity.

Letter 24, 1.
Letters, Book VI