At the time, that comment raised eyebrows, yet he was quite correct in his observation.

Ernest Hemingway made a similar comment when a character in his novel The Sun Also Rises was asked how he went bankrupt. The answer was, "Gradually, then suddenly."

Again, this sounds cryptic, yet it's accurate.

Any empire, at its peak, is all-powerful, but the fragility of an empire that's in decline is hard to grasp, as the visuals tend not to reveal what's soon to come.

Great countries are built upon traditional values – industriousness, self-reliance, honour, etc. But empires are distinctly different. Although it may seem to be a moot point, an empire is a great country whose traditional values have led it to become unusually prosperous. There are many countries, both large and small, that are "great" in their formative values, but only a few become empires.