" He had proved beyond any reasonable doubt that gods and devils were simply myth and superstition, but deep in his unruly peasant heart ("My father was a village apothecary and my mother was a goatherd's daughter. Can you imagine?") he believed...And belief, like love and sleep, is something you can't do anything about. You can't make it come if you want it, and you can't make it go if you don't. "
― K.J. Parker , Prosper's Demon