Astolphe de Custine

We are all vaguely tormented with a desire to know a world which appears to us a dungeon . . . I should feel as if I could not depart in peace out of this narrow sphere unless I endeavored to explore my prison. The more I examine it, the more beautiful and extensive it becomes in my eyes.

Astolphe de Custine (qtd. in The Accidental Masterpiece by Michael Kimmelman)