“Why do people in this age think their own impoverished lives must be the norm of the universe? Consider. The atoms that build you are clouds of sheer energy. The sun that shines on you could consume this planet, and there are other suns that could swallow it. Your ancestors hunted the mammoth, crossed oceans in rowboats, died on a thousand red fields. Your civiliation stands at the edge of oblivion. Within your body at this instant a war is fought without quarter against invaders that would devour you, against entropy, and against time itself. That’s a norm for you!”

Poul Anderson - "The Corridors of Time"