I’m not going to prematurely celebrate the collapse of the liberal international order as it may yet find a way to limp along a while longer. But.

We have already seen earlier, when discussing world schematism, that in connection with this Hegelian nodal line of measure relations — in which quantitative change suddenly passes at certain points into qualitative transformation — Herr Dühring had a little accident: in a weak moment he himself recognised and made use of this line. We gave there one of the best-known examples — that of the change of the aggregate states of water, which under normal atmospheric pressure changes at 0° C from the liquid into the solid state, and at 100°C from the liquid into the gaseous state, so that at both these turning-points the merely quantitative change of temperature brings about a qualitative change in the condition of the water.

—Engels, Anti-Dühring

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.

— Vladimir Lenin, allegedly

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly.”

— Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”

— John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Quote Investigator: Days Into Which 20 Years Are Compressed