Rise and Fall of Nations

"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 courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complaceny to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage."

-- Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813)
Lord Woodhouselee, Scottish jurist, professor and historian

Source: Questionable. See http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp

http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Alex.Tytler.Quote.94FA

COMMENT: The original source may be questionable as to attribution, but the histories of various nations and empires has not, e.g.

Ancient Egypt
Persia
Ancient Greece under Alexander
The Roman Empire
The Mogul Empire
Ancient Japan
Various Chinese states and empires
The Mongols under Gengis Khan
British Empire
French Empire
Spanish Empire
Austria - Hungarian Empire
Inca Empire
Mayan Empire
Toltecs
Russian Empire
Zulu Empire
And.......
Someday the "___" (fill in the name of ANY Current nation or organization of nations on Earth)