"It grows harder from here," she warned the cat, but it dropped to the path and walked forward as though to say, 'You are wasting your time.' -Kij Johnson, 2016
It should be noted that the motor car was also invented by pedestrians. But for some reason the motorists soon forgot about that. They began to run over the meek and mild, clever pedestrians. The streets built by the pedestrians passed into the hands of the motorists. the roads doubled in width and the sidewalks narrowed down to the size of a tobacco wrapper. The pedestrians began to huddle against the walls of buildings in alarm. -Ilf & Petrov, 1962