“Stories that tell of men’s aspirations for more than material life can give them — their struggles for the future welfare of their race, their unselfish love, their unrequited service:  things like this are the subjects for the best art; in such subjects there is hope surely, yet the aspect of them is likely to be sorrowful enough:  defeat the seed of victory, and death the seed of life, will be shown on the face of most of them.”

— William Morris, “Some Hints on Pattern-Designing”