George Bernard Shaw writes:
Flinders Petrie has counted nine attempts at civilization made by people exactly like us; and every one of them failed just as ours is failing. They failed because the citizens and statesmen died of old age or over-eating before they had grown out of schoolboy games and savage sports and cigars and champagne. … If you cannot organize Socialism you cannot organize civilised life, and you will relapse into barbarism accordingly.
In Back to Methuselah, Part II, (orig. pub. 1921; New York: Penguin Books, 1977): 129–30.