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It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination marvelous to our kind of people, the cold whites.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens#133

MotivationFaithHuman behaviorEnduranceSocial dynamics

About this quote

What does it mean?
Faith can drive large numbers of weak people to embark on difficult journeys and endure suffering, motivated by love or fear, producing results beyond what the 'cold whites' can imagine.
In plain terms
Faith pushes many weak people to take hard trips and suffer, driven by love or fear, creating amazing outcomes.
What can you take from it?
Strong belief can inspire collective endurance and extraordinary results.

Where it applies

  • mass movements
  • religious pilgrimages
  • social struggles

Putting it to work

  • mobilize communities
  • frame narratives of sacrifice

Questions to consider

  • What drives people to endure hardship?
  • Is fear as effective as love?

Another view

The quote assumes everyone shares the same capacity for faith, ignoring individual agency.

More from Samuel Langhorne Clemens

  1. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India.

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  2. Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.

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  3. Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same si…

    Permalink to quote #131

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