From The Ancient City by Fustel de Coulanges (1830-1889), on the power that brought people together to form the first cities:

This power was a belief. Nothing has more power over the soul. A belief is the work of our mind, but we are not on that account free to modify it at will. It is our own creation, but we do not know it. It is human, and we believe it a god. It is the effect of our power, and is stronger than we are. It is in us; it does not quit us: it speaks to us at every moment. If it tells us to obey, we obey; if it traces duties for us, we submit. Man may, indeed, subdue nature, but he is subdued by his own thoughts.
[Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956, p. 132]

Amen to that. I love this guy’s Neoplatonism!

See also — I am not making this up! — Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges.