The eternal metallic line, product of us all gathered here now, that eternal metallic line is our crime against today and also our purest effort. We launch it into space, we launch it from our umbilical cord, and this thrust is for eternity. The hidden intention is that, by thrusting it, our body too-bound to it by the umbilical cord-our body too will be wrenched from the ground of today and thrust into space. This is our hope, this is our patience. This is our calculation of eternity. The mission is suicidal: we have volunteered ourselves for the future. We are businessmen who need not money, but posterity.

Clarice Lispector
from Inaugural Address