"When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us why"
About this Quote
The sharpest move is her impatience with moral self-consciousness. “Speculate no more on our duty” skewers a familiar habit: outsourcing ethics to endless rumination. Mulock treats overthinking as a form of delay that flatters the ego while starving the world. The subtext is disciplinary: decency isn’t a mood, it’s a practice, and the time you spend auditioning your virtue could have been spent helping.
Then she offers a theologically clever consolation: act first, understand later. “However blindly” grants that you may not feel certain, pure, or even particularly inspired. That’s not disqualifying; it’s normal. “Perhaps Heaven will show us why” isn’t triumphalist certainty but a wager - meaning arrives as a consequence of commitment. In a century anxious about doubt, Mulock proposes a moral workaround: when metaphysics won’t cooperate, let conduct carry you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Kindness |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: Christian's Mistake (Dinah Maria Mulock, 1865)
Evidence: There is a deeper meaning in this text than we at first see. Of "these three," two concern ourselves; the third concerns others. When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us the reason why. (Ch. 2, p. 64 (as cited by Wikiquote); appears just before the heading "Chapter 3" in the Project Gutenberg text). This wording is from Dinah Maria Mulock Craik’s novel Christian’s Mistake (first published 1865). Many secondary quote sites omit the word "the" before "reason" and/or drop "reason" entirely; the primary text reads "show us the reason why". The passage appears in the narrative shortly after the quotation of 1 Corinthians 13:13 ("Faith, hope, and charity...") and immediately before the text transitions to the next chapter heading ("Chapter 3") in the Project Gutenberg transcription. For a bibliographically anchored 1865 edition reference (publisher/date), see the British Library digitised record metadata for Christian’s Mistake (1865, Hurst & Blackett). Other candidates (1) Christian ́s Mistake (Maria Dinah Craik, 2018) compilation97.6% ... When faith and hope fail , as they do sometimes , we must try charity , which is love in action . We must specula... |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Mulock, Dinah Maria. (2026, March 5). When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us why. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-faith-and-hope-fail-as-they-do-sometimes-we-169985/
Chicago Style
Mulock, Dinah Maria. "When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us why." FixQuotes. March 5, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-faith-and-hope-fail-as-they-do-sometimes-we-169985/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us why." FixQuotes, 5 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-faith-and-hope-fail-as-they-do-sometimes-we-169985/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.












