"A thousand minds, a thousand arguments; a lively intermingling of questions, problems, news of the latest happening, jokes; an inexhaustible play of language and thought, a vibrant curiosity; the changeable temper of a thousand spirits by whom every object of discussion is broken into an infinity of sense and significations--all these spring into being, and then are spent. And this is the pleasure of the Florentine public. "
Richard Goodwin (The American Condition)