If a man stay away from his wife for seven years, the law presumes the
separation to have killed him; yet according to our daily experience,
it might well prolong his life.
-- Charles Darling, "Scintillae Juris, 1877

So do the noble fall. For they are ever caught in a trap of their own making.
A trap -- walled by duty, and locked by reality. Against the greater force
they must fall -- for, against that force they fight because of duty, because
of obligations. And when the noble fall, the base remain. The base -- whose
only purpose is the corruption of what the noble did protect. Whose only
purpose is to destroy. The noble: who, even when fallen, retain a vestige of
strength. For theirs is a strength born of things other than mere force.
Theirs is a strength supreme... theirs is the strength -- to restore.
-- Gerry Conway, "Thor", #193