Look on my works

My prediction is that the foolish words of Treasurer Foley suggesting that future generations will build him a statue will come back to haunt him again and again.
I guess that not a few folk with a more literary bent immediately thought of the poet Shelley who in the desert came across the decayed and broken statue of Ozymandias who had boasted “look on my works ye mighty and despair”. The poet then observes:

“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away”

If we do not heed the lessons of history about hubris, arrogance and misplaced pride then (as is clearly apparent) we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.