"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage."
-- Sir Alex Fraser Tyler: (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian.