"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 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 dependency, from dependency back again into bondage." -Sir Alex Fraser Tyler, 1742-1813, Scottish jurist and historian
1 comment:
Interesting quote Tom. (You had to know you'd get the history teacher's attention with this.) The theme of the rise and fall of one civilization after another throughout history was certainly one I taught, though I really don't think the 200 year part holds up. And it's interesting to think about America's place in the cycle. Maybe scary would be a better word. - Eileen (sometimes known as HB, where the H stands for History)
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