stakes

Bridge-players tell me that there must be some money on the game "or else people won't take it seriously." Apparently it's like that. Your bid--for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity-- will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it.

And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high; until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences but for every penny you have in the world.