Only We Mortals

Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year.  Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.

-- Thomas Mann (1875 - 1955), German novelist and short story writer, 1929 Nobel laureate in Literature, The Magic Mountain (1924) Ch. 5