“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.”
referencing the Kumbh Mela, Ch. XLIX
Following the Equator (1897)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Mark Twain 637
American author and humorist 1835–1910Related quotes

“Hesitation of any kind is a sign of mental decay in the young, of physical weakness in the old.”
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 122.

“The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.”
Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, 52 (3 March 1919).
1910s

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”
Optimism (1903)
Variant: Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement

2010s, 2019, June, Remarks on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day in Colleville-sur-Mer, France