Somewhere Quotes - page 76
We understand in the sun planet also there are varieties of living entities, but their bodies are made of fire. As our body is made of earth, similarly, their bodies are made of fire. There are five elements in the material nature: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. So in different planets, there are different atmospheres and different bodies also. Don't think that each and every planet of the same quality. No. Same quality in the sense because these five elements are present there. Without these five elements, no material thing exists. So somewhere the fire is prominent. Somewhere the air is prominent. Somewhere water is prominent. Somewhere earth is prominent. So in this planet, or in some other earthly planet, earth is predominant. Similarly, there are other planets also. So don't think that other planets are vacant. No.
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
I thought back over my life. How does a man come to climb mountains? Is he drawn by the heights because he is afraid of the level land? Is he such a misfit in the society of men that he must flee and try to place himself above it? The way up is long and difficult, but if he succeeds they must grant him a garland of sorts. And if he falls, this too is a kind of glory. To end, hurled from the heights to the depths in hideous ruin and combustion down, is a fitting climax for the loser-for it, too, shakes mountains and minds, stirs things like thoughts below both, is a kind of blasted garland of victory in defeat, and cold, so cold that final action, that the movement is somewhere frozen forever into a statuelike rigidity of ultimate intent and purpose thwarted only by the universal malevolence we all fear exists. An aspirant saint or hero who lacks some necessary virtue may still qualify as a martyr, for the only thing that people will really remember in the end is the end.
Roger Zelazny