Ascending to Cloud 9

All these nines for ninnies.... from Mr. Cain's 9.9.9 to Wall Street's We are the 99 percent   indicate the aspiration for equality. Becoming part of the 1%.  Sharing into the top.
Nine rhymes with mine.

Seneca tweets?

 Latin proverbs are best for tweets.

tools of the Enlightenment

Education might seem to work for a while, but only rarely will it completely defeat personality. Similarly democracy might only marginally change a society's historical character.  In this example democracy means not being sent to Siberia.

Should have learned never to mix personality and character. Especially since each one has different meanings in the different languages I speak.