"I have not doubt that humanity will manage to recover, even if it does not succeed in the 21st century. What is serious is that people no longer have faith in their own future, and that they live in a foolish infinity; in the infinity of inventiveness, or of goodness, as I was saying yesterday... with alternative versions of Hobbes's saying about 'homo homini lupus'. In the course of a discussion with Herder, who was presenting him with a project for an ideal society, Goethe replied: 'It might be so, but that will mean that each of us is the nurse of the other.' So we have 'homo homini curator.' We have not got there yet, but if you allow me license I can say that we are in the stage of 'homo homini "corruptor,'"' of man who lived the foolish infinite of consumption. Everything corrupts us nowadays, goods and ideas alike."Constantine Noica, in Liiceanu's Paltinis Diary (p. 155, responding to a letter from Cioran)