Democritus

Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.

– Democritus

A writer is justly called ‘universal’ when he is understood within the limits of his civilization, though that be bounded by a country or an age.