As for the human case, the generation of men come and go and are in eternity no more than bacteria upon a luminous slide, and the fall of a republic … - Gore Vidal

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As for the human case, the generation of men come and go and are in eternity no more than bacteria upon a luminous slide, and the fall of a republic or the rise of an empire — so significant to those involved — are not detectable upon the slide even were there an interested eye to behold that steadily proliferating species which would either end in time or, with luck, become something else, since change is the nature of life, and its hope.