John Locke

"Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas: - How comes it to be furninshed? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and Knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience. In that all our knowledge is founded; and from that it ultimately derives itself."