the count of monte cristo

I can confidently say that I have finally passed HALF WAY! Congratulations to me! Page 669.

I have to finish this book before my upcoming travels so three weeks to fully dedicate myself to this! I can do it!

This book is far too complicated to blog a running commentary of what is happening and I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone...you know ALL my readers! (jk)

What I can do is quote some of the deeply touching passages, quotes or sections that I come across.  So here is one that reads almost like poetry:

The count is describing himself:
"I am one of those exceptional human beings, and I believe that, before today, no man has found himself in a position similar to my own.  The kingdoms of kings are defined, either by mountains or rivers, or by a change in customs or by a difference in language; but my kingdom is as great as the world, because I am neither Italian nor French, nor Hindu, nor American, nor a Spaniard; I am a cosmopolitan.  No country can claim to be my birthplace.  God alone knows in what region I shall die.  I adopt every custom, I speak every tongue....In this way, you see, being of no country, asking for the protection of no government and acknowledging no man as my brother, I am not restrained or hampered by a single one of the scruples that tie the hands of the powerful or the obstacles that block the path of the weak. I have only two enemies: I shall not say two conquerers because with persistence I can make them bow to my will: they are distance and time.  The third and most awful is my condition as a mortal man.  Only that can halt me on the path I have chosen before I have reached my appointed goal. Everything else is planned for. I have foreseen all those things that men call the vagaries of fate: ruin, change and chance.  If some of them might injure me, none could defeat me.  Unless I die, I shall always be what I am.  This is why I am telling you things that you have never heard, even from the mouths of kings, because kings need you and other men fear you."

Do you find this passage inspiring? Does something turn in your soul? Does it make you feel a sense of loneliness? Sadness? Strength?