It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it ws the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some os its noisiest authorities insisted on being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparision only.
[A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens]