Daily Inspiration Quote by Morley Safer

Faith-healing tourism has always been a two-for-one deal: if the miracle doesn’t show up, the gift shop will. Morley Safer’s line lands because it’s built like reportage and delivered like a punchline, turning “pilgrims” from holy seekers into consumers mid-sentence. The pivot from “cure” to “curio” is doing the real work: two words that differ by a single letter, suggesting how little it takes for hope to be rerouted into habit, and how quickly suffering can be converted into a souvenir.

Safer, a journalist who made a career of cool-eyed observation, isn’t mocking belief so much as tracking what belief attracts in the modern world: an economy. The quote implies a familiar arc in places marketed as sacred or therapeutic - Lourdes, hot springs, wellness retreats, shrine towns - where the infrastructure around the search for healing is as reliable as the healing itself. The “soon” is the tell. It compresses time, hinting at the quiet moment when the seeker realizes the cure may be out of reach but the experience must still be made legible: through objects, relics, tokens, proof-you-were-there.

Subtextually, it’s also about dignity. People don’t buy curios because they’re shallow; they buy them to manage disappointment, to carry home a narrative that feels less like failure. Safer’s cynicism is surgical: the market doesn’t need to disprove miracles. It just needs to be ready when miracles don’t arrive.