Quote

We find ourselves in the last of the three generations history chooses to repeat every now and then. The first generation needs a god, so they invent one. The second erects temples to that god and tries to imitate him. And the third uses the marble from those temples to build brothels in which to worship their own greed, lust, and dishonesty. And that is why gods and heroes are always, inevitably, succeeded by mediocrities, cowards, and imbeciles.

⁠— Arturo Perez-Reverte