"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.