... "fire" does not matter, "earth" and "air" and "water" do not matter.
"I" do not matter. No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers
words. The more words he remembers, the cleverer do his fellows esteem him.
He looks upon the great transformations of the world, but he does not see
them as they were seen when man looked upon reality for the first time.
Their names come to his lips and he smiles as he tastes them, thinking he
knows them in the naming.
-- Roger Zelazny, "Lord of Light"
If a man remembers what is right at the sign of profi is ready to lay
down his life in the face of danger, and does not forget sentiments he
has repeated all his life when he has been in straitened circumstances
for a long time, he may be said to be a complete man....