Quote of the day - Leonello

"It is an ancient opinion, not only of the Christians but of the Gentiles, that the heavens, the sea, and the earth must some day perish; in like manner, of many magnificent cities nothing but ruins leveled with the ground can now be seen, and Rome the conqueror herself lies in the dust and is reduced to fragments; while only the understanding of things divine and human, which we call wisdom, is not extinguished by length of years, but retains its rights in perpetuity."

Leonello - edict issued upon reorganizing the University of Ferrara (1442)

as quoted in Durant, The Renaissance, p. 268-269 (quoting Ella Noyes, Story of Ferrara, 1904, p. 82).