...fact takes no heed of human hopes. - H. G. Wells

He blinked at the sun and dreamt that perhaps he might snare it and spare it as it went down to its resting place amidst the distant hills.

You cannot imagine the strange colour-less delight of these intellectual desires.

A few minutes before, there had only been three real things before me — the immensity of the night and space and nature, my own feebleness and anguish, and the near approach of death.