Ode to Man (Antigone) — Sophocles

Many are the wonders of the world, and none is more wonderful than man. He crosses the grey sea before the storm, passing beneath the surges that break around him; and Earth, the oldest of the gods, the undying, he wears away, turning the soil year after year. Speech, and wind-swift thought, and the temper that builds cities, all these he has taught himself. For every ill he has found a remedy; from death alone he shall find no escape.