See, Biff, everybody around me is so false that I'm constantly lowering my ideals... - Arthur Miller

An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.

He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.

A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud — God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!