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Who knows but that hereafter some traveller like myself will sit down upon the banks of the Seine, the Thames, or the Zuyder Zee, where now, in the tumult of enjoyment, the heart and the eyes are too slow to take in the multitude of sensations? Who knows but he will sit down solitary amid silent ruins, and weep a people inurned and their greatness changed into an empty name?

Who knows but that hereafter some traveller like myself will sit down upon the banks of the Seine, the Thames, or the Zuyder Zee, where now, in the tumult of enjoyment, the heart and the eyes are too slow to take in the multitude of sensations? Who knows but he will sit down solitary amid silent ruins, and weep a people inurned and their greatness changed into an empty name?
Volney (identity unresolved)

Historical period not yet established

Meaning not yet available

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Volney (identity unresolved)
Attribution: unknown
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates.
Recorded source
Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922) (1922 AD)

Printed page 687 · quotation 15 · Volney · Ruins. Ch. II.

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.