I am just finishing a book Didge suggested, on the archaeological excavations of the sunken city on the volcanic island of Thera, in the Mediterranean Sea, prolly the origin of the ATLANTIS legends.
Each chapter begins with a few epigrams, and one of those is this epitaph from the crypt of two astronomers, apparently buried together:
“We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
* * *
And then just for good measure, that chapter also has the original version of the famous quote from Carl Sagan, Carnegie Hall, 1984:
“All the heavy elements that make up the rocks under our feet, the carbon and iron that pulse through our veins – all of these things were created by suns that had reached the ends of their lives and erupted into supernovae.
“We are all dust of the stars.”
* * *
Oh, and the book is UNEARTHING ATLANTIS, by Charles Pellegrini.