Victor Frankenstein, Sir Malcolm Murray and others in “Unfinished Business”

Victor Frankenstein

I would never chart a river or scale a peak to take its measure or plant a flag. There's no point. It's solipsistic self-aggrandizement. So too those scientists who study the planets seeking astronomical enlightenment for its own sake. The botanist studying the variegation of an Amazonian fern. The zoologist caught up in the endless fascination of an adder's coils. And for what? Knowledge for itself alone? The elation of discovery? Plant your flag on the truth? There is only one worthy goal for scientific exploration... piercing the tissue that separates life from death. Everything else, from the deep bottom of the sea to the top of the highest mountain on the farthest planet, is insignificant. Life and death, Sir Malcolm. The flicker that separates one from the other, fast as a bat's wing, more beautiful than any sonnet. That is my river. That is my mountain. There I will plant my flag.

Sir Malcolm Murray

You have the soul of a poet, sir.

Victor

And the bank account to match.