The Greco-Roman historian Plutarch, in his Life of Julius Caesar, describes an incident in which the future ruler of Rome was reading a biography of Alexander the Great when he burst into tears. His companions asked him why. Caesar replied:
"Do you not think," said he, "it is matter for sorrow that while Alexander, at my age, was already king of so many peoples, I have as yet achieved no brilliant success?"
No matter what any of us can accomplish of the course of our lives, there is always someone greater than ourselves. That person is Peter von Tangen Buskov, who has secured a Guinness World Record for the most matchsticks stuck up the nostrils. That number is 68, but von Tangen Buskov plans to train his nose to take an even greater number, just as Alexander, at the time of his death, was planning the conquest of Arabia.
-via Dave Barry