" Our possessing of our world is a temporary matter: we stamp our ownership upon our surroundings, give familiar names to the land about us, erect statues of ourselves, but all of this is swept away, so quickly, so easily. We think the world is ours for ever, but we are little more than squatters. "

― Alexander McCall Smith , The Careful Use of Compliments (Isabel Dalhousie, #4)