What you are seeking is a better age, a more beautiful world. It was this world that you embraced in your friends; with them you were this world���. It was not human beings that you wanted, believe me, you wanted a world. The loss of all golden centuries, as you felt them compressed into a single glorious moment, the spirit of all spirits of better ages, the power of all heroes��� powers: those were to be replaced for you by a single human being!

Diotima, in Hoelderlin's Hyperion