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In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words they were humanists: they didn't believe in plagues. A plague isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell ourselves that plague is a mere spook of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they haven't taken their precautions. Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be modest, that was all, and thought that everything still was possible for them; which presupposed that plagues were impossible. They went on conducting business, planning trips, and formed views. How should they have given a thought to anything like plague, which rules out any future, cancels trips, silences the exchange of views. They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are plagues"

-- Albert Camus, ''The Plague"