Rodney Stark on the fall of the Roman empire and Western Civilization

[T]he fall of Rome was not a tragic setback; had the empire prevailed, there would be nothing to call Western Civilization.  If Rome still ruled, Europe would be mired in a brutal command economy, there would've been very little innovation of any kind, and the rest of the world probably would be much as Europeans found it in the 15th and 16th centuries.  Empires are the enemies of progress!

~ Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity led to freedom, capitalism and Western success, p. 75