"The genuine man of words himself can get along without faith in absolutes. He values the search for truth as much as truth itself. He delights in the clash of thought and in the give-and-take of controversy. If he formulate a philosophy and a doctrine, they are more an exhibition of brilliance and an exercise in dialectics than a program of action and the tenets of a faith. His vanity, it is true, often prompts him to defend his speculations with savagery and even venom; but his appeal is usually to reason and not to faith. The fanatics and the faith-hungry masses, however, are likely to invest such speculations with the certitude of holy writ, and make them the fountainhead of a new faith. Jesus was not a Christian, nor was Marx a Marxist. To sum up, the militant man of words prepares the ground for the rise of a mass movement: 1) by discrediting prevailing creeds and institutions and detaching from them the allegiance of the people; 2) by indirectly creating a hunger for faith in the hearts of those who cannot live without it, so that when the new faith is preached it finds an eager response among the disillusioned masses; 3) by furnishing the doctrine and the slogans of the new faith; 4) by undermining the convictions of the “better people”—those who can get along without faith—so that when the new fanaticism makes its appearance they are without the capacity to resist it. They see no sense in dying for convictions and principles, and yield to the new order without a fight."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Section 15, Chapter 108 (p. 128)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_True_Believer
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The True Believer
137 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The True Believer →
Related Quotes
"When people are ripe for a mass movement, they are usually ripe for any effective movement, and not solely for one wi…"
"The religious character of the Bolshevik and Nazi revolutions is generally recognized. The hammer and sickle and the …"
"There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanit…"
"When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apar…"
"This receptivity to all movements does not always cease even after the potential true believer has become the ardent …"
"Since all mass movements draw their adherents from the same types of humanity and appeal to the same types of mind, i…"
"The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for…"
"A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own mean…"
"Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves."
"There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation or any distinct group by its least worthy members. Though manifestly un…"