AMBITION

From a New Yorker article about S. A. Andree, an Arctric explorer who sought to become the first explorer to traverse the North Pole by flying a balloon over it. The balloon crashed, he and his two companions survived the crash, but died, freezing to death. He left a diary behind, discovered many years later by other explorers. In it he wrote:

"We think we can well face death, having done what we have done. Isn't it all, perhaps, the expression of an extremely strong sense of of individuality that cannot bear the thought of living and dying like a man in the ranks, forgotten by coming generations. Is this ambition? [italics mine]"