Full Idea
The feeling of believing is a more or less sure indication of there being established in our nature some habit which will determine our actions. Doubt never has such an effect.
Gist of Idea
The feeling of belief shows a habit which will determine our actions
Source
Charles Sanders Peirce (The Fixation of Belief [1877], p.10)
Book Reference
Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Philosophical Writings of Peirce', ed/tr. Buchler,Justus [Dover 1940], p.10
A Reaction
It is one thing to assert this fairly accurate observation, and another to assert that this is the essence or definition of a belief. Perhaps it is the purpose of belief, without being the phenomenological essence of it. We act in states of uncertainty.