# Quote — John Banville, The Untouchable

> But what comfort does belief offer, when it contains within it its own antithesis, the glistening drop of poison at the heart? Is the Pascalian wager sufficient to sustain a life, a real life, in the real world? The fact that you place your bet on red does not mean that the black is not still there.

- Author: [John Banville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville.md)
- Book: [The Untouchable](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Banville#The_Untouchable_(1997)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/but-what-comfort

## More from this book

> Man is only lovable in the multitude, and at a good distance.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/man-is-only.md)

> I suspect that significant first encounters only take on their aura of significance in retrospect.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/i-suspect-that.md)

> I was pondering the question, which I have pondered before, of whether such great revelatory moments really so occur, or if it is only that, out of need, our lives so lacking in drama, we invest past events with a significance they do not warrant.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/i-was-pondering.md)