The Long Now

John Kennedy told the story of Marshal Hubert Lyautey (1854–1934), a French army general and colonial administrator in Morocco. Lyautey asked his gardener to plant a certain tree. The gardener objected that the tree would grow slowly and wouldn’t reach maturity for a century. “In that case,” the marshal replied, “there is no time to lose. Plant it this afternoon.”

From Larry Lessig in America, Compromised.