GEORGE SANTAYANA ON FAITH
The late great Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist, Jorge Augustin Nicolas Ruiz Santayana y Borras (1863 - 1952), better known as "George Santayana" once said:
"O world, thou choosest not the better part!
It is not wisdom to be only wise,
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Columbus found a world and had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the soul’s invincible surmise
Was all his science and his only art.
Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine
That lights the pathway but one step ahead
Across a void of mystery and dread.
Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine
By which alone the mortal heart is led
Unto the thinking of the thought Divine."
(Sources: "God’s Treasury of Virtues," c1995 Tulsa, Oklahoma: Honor Books, Inc., ISBN 1-56292-153-3, pp. 300-302. "Leaves of Gold," Revised Edition, edited by Clyde Francis Lytle, c1948: A.C and D.G. Remley, published, Williamsport, Pennsylvania: The Coslett Publishing Company, p. 64. From a sermon by George Dillahunty, A Centurion’s Faith!, 12/11/2009.)