At your age, and with your talents, you[Y]ou must learn what life is now, not from me, but from life itself; but, if you will hear an old man’s opinion, I will give it you.  If you think you can temper yourself into manliness by sitting here over your books, supposing you will grow into it as a matter of course by a rule of necessity, in the same way as your body grows old, it is the very silliest fancy that ever tempted a young man into his ruin.  You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.  Go out into life, you will find your chance there, and only there.  ~James Anthony Froude, The Nemesis of Faith, 1849, commonly misattributed to Henry David ThoreauTPV even the “I will give it you” and not “give it to you” – also thanks walden.org/Library/Quotations/The_Henry_D._Thoreau_Mis-Quotation_Page