A Plan to Reach the North Pole by Balloon

When asked what he would do if his balloon came down in the water with no one around, he said, "Drown."

"It is not a little strange to be floating here above the polar sea," he went on. "To be the first to have floated here in a balloon. How soon, I wonder, shall we have successors? Shall we be thought mad or will our example be followed? I cannot deny that all three of us are dominated by a feeling of pride. We think we can well face death having done what we have done. Isn't it all, perhaps, the expression of an extremely strong sense of individuality which cannot bear the thought of living and dying like a man in the ranks, forgotten by coming generations? Is this ambition?"