It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was 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 direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens, A Tale Of Two Cities (1859).
After writing the best of times/blurst of times post below, I decided to look up the real quote.
It’s one of the greatest sentences ever written, it’s about comparing 1775 to 1859 and it’s skin-crawlingly relevant in 2017.