…a man who keeps company with glaciers comes to feel tolerably insignificant by and by. The Alps and the glaciers together are able to take every bit of conceit out of a man and reduce his self-importance to zero if he will only remain within the influence of their sublime presence long enough to give it a fair and reasonable chance to do its work.
– Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad

Does a man’s self-importance shrink along with the glaciers, even as his foolishness grows?