"A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind."
"Everyone aimed at security: no one accepted responsibility. What was plainly lacking, long before the barbarian invasions had done their work, long before economic dislocations became serious, was inner go. Rome’s life was now an imitation of life: a mere holding on. Security was the watchword – as if life knew any other stability than through constant change, or any form of security except through a constant willingness to take risks"
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Source: The City in History. Book by Lewis Mumford, p. 486, 1961.
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