Impermanence

I came across the following this morning:

The art of man is able to construct monuments far more permanent than the narrow span of his own existence; yet these monuments, like himself, are perishable and frail, and in the boundless annals of time, his life and labors must equally be measured as a fleeting moment.

-- Edward Gibbon

Yes, the one who wrote The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
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UPDATE: Another Gibbon quote for your contemplation:

There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present times.

It's hard not to, isn't it?
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