"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 great courage to liberty;

from liberty to abundance;

from abundance to complacency;

from complacency to apathy;

from apathy to dependence;

from dependence back into bondage."


- 1787, Scottish history professor Alexander Tyler