“It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world, but for Wales?”

“For Wales? Why Richard, it profit a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. . . but for Wales!”

“What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world if he lost his soul?”

“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

“By the way, Dorian, he (Lord Henry) said, after a pause, what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose - how does the quotation run? - his own soul? ”

“...Not till we are completely lost, or turned round,--for a man needs only to be turned round once with his eyes shut in this world to be lies,--do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of nature. Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations." Thoreau is playing with the biblical question about what it profits a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. Lose the whole world, get lost in it, and find your soul.”