Things that don't last, and those that should

Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore; fecemi la divina podestate, la somma sapïenza e 'l primo amore. Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create, Se non etterne, e io etterno duro. Justice moved my high maker, in power divine, Wisdom supreme, love primal. No things were Before me not eternal; eternal I remain. — Dante Alighieri, Inferno, canto III (as translated by Robert Pinsky)

Global hegemony shouldn't last, and doesn't:



Human languages should flourish and endure. Through no fault of their speakers, some teeter on the verge of extinction: