Antoine de Saint-Exupery — Wind, Sand and Stars

Without question I was the first human being ever to wander over this . . . this iceberg; its sides were remarkably steep, no Arab could have climbed them, and no European had as yet ventured into this wild region. I was thrilled by the virginity of a soil which no step of man or beast had sullied. I lingered there, startled by the silence that had never been broken. The first star began to shine, and I said to myself that this pure surface had lain here thousands of years in sight only of the stars.