Laudator Temporis Acti

Augustine, Sermons 109.1 (Patrologia Latina, vol. 38, col. 636; tr. Edmund Hill):

We are at constant risk from accidents. We would have less to fear from accidents if we were made of glass. What could be more fragile than a glass vessel? And yet it can be preserved and last for centuries. Glass, after all, even though it is liable to accidents, doesn't have to fear old age and fever. So we are even more fragile and weak; because on the one hand our fragility is threatened every day by the accidents which never stop happening in human affairs; and on the other hand, even if no accidents occur, time marches on; you may avoid a fatal blow, will you avoid your final exit? You may avoid things happening to you from without, can you fend off what starts from within? In a word, now your innards may breed tapeworms, now any kind of disease may suddenly attack you; finally, however long you may be spared, old age comes along eventually, and there is nowhere to shunt it off to.

Inter casus ambulamus. Si vitrei essemus, minus casus timeremus. Quid fragilius vase vitreo? Et tamen servatur, et durat per saecula. Etsi enim casus vitreo vasi timentur, senectus ei et febris non timetur. Nos ergo fragiliores et infirmiores sumus: quia et casus omnes qui non cessant in rebus humanis, fragilitate utique nostra quotidie formidamus; et si ipsi casus non accedant, tempus ambulat: vitat homo ictum, numquid vitat exitum? vitat quae extrinsecus eveniunt, numquid quod intus nascitur pellitur? Denique nunc lumbricos gignunt interiora, nunc morbus quilibet subito occupat: postremo quantumvis homini parcatur, novissime senectus cum venerit, non est quo differatur.

Roman glass cup (Turin, Museo di Antichità, no. 3302)