His error lay in supposing that this age, more than any past or future one, is destined to see the tattered garments of Antiquity exchanged for a new… - Nathaniel Hawthorne

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His error lay in supposing that this age, more than any past or future one, is destined to see the tattered garments of Antiquity exchanged for a new suit, instead of gradually renewing themselves by patchwork; in applying his own little life span as the measure of an interminable acheivement; and, more than all, in fancying that it mattered anything to the great end in view whether he himself should contend for it or against it.