“I want no secrets or soul-states, nothing ineffable; I am neithervirgin nor priest enough to play with the inner life.”

“I am neither virgin nor priest enough to play with the inner life.”

“I confess that neither the structure of language, nor the code of governments, nor the politics of various states possessed attractions for me. It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.”

“I know nothing of god or the devil. I have never learned a secret nor found a cure that would damn or save my soul.”

“Thus play I in one person many people, And none contented: sometimes am I king; Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar, And so I am: then crushing penury Persuades me I was better when a king; Then am I king'd again: and by and by Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke, And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be, Nor I nor any man that but man is With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased With being nothing.”

“I never play, because I am not rich enough to afford to lose or poor enough to want to win. Maximilien Morrel, The Count of Monte Cristo”