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About this quote

What does it mean?
People often turn to external causes to replace the confidence they lack internally.
In plain terms
Faith in a cause fills the gap of self-doubt.
What can you take from it?
External faith often masks internal insecurity.

Where it applies

  • personal crisis
  • loss of direction
  • identity search

Putting it to work

  • build self-reliance
  • identify dependency
  • examine motives

Questions to consider

  • Why do we seek causes outside ourselves?
  • How does self-doubt drive belief?

Another view

It dismisses genuine spiritual or altruistic motivation.

More from Eric Hoffer

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  2. The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his…

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  3. For though ours is a godless age, it is the very opposite of irreligious. The true believer is everywhere on the march, and both by converting and antagonizing…

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