" GERMIC: Ah, what’s the bigger mystery?   That man ever was,   Or that he’ll always be? JORIS: Some say one night a thousand ships   Fell across a thousand skies,   Like hope, which always flies. GERMIC: Dear lady, from whence we came,   Either from the thousand ships and skies,   Or from a single orb of fame,   Matters not when each man dies. —Excerpt from Act II, Home Divided Yves N. Dorben "

― L.E. Modesitt Jr. , The Hammer of Darkness