“The cosmos that gave birth to us has always been open to becoming more. Through the human mind the universe anticipates an inexhaustible meaning and truth. Through our aesthetic restlessness the universe is now opening itself to an endless beauty. And through our moral sensitivity it is awakening to an infinite goodness. What faith adds to this cosmic stirring is a trust that meaning, truth, beauty, and goodness are everlasting. And if they are everlasting, then we can be assured that our responses to them not only matter, but that they matter forever.”
faith
The Knight of Faith /
“The Knight of Faith is obliged to rely upon himself alone, he feels the pain of not being able to make himself intelligible to others, but he feels no vain desire to guide others. The pain is his assurance that he is in the right way, this vain desire he does not know, he is too serious for that. The false knight of faith readily betrays himself by this proficiency in guiding which he has acquired in an instant. He does not comprehend what it is all about, that if another individual is to take the same path, he must become entirely in the same way the individual and have no need of any man’s guidance, least of all the guidance of a man who would obtrude himself. At this point men leap aside, they cannot bear the martyrdom of being uncomprehended, and instead of this they choose conveniently enough the worldly admiration of their proficiency. The true Knight of Faith is a witness, never a teacher, and therein lies his deep humanity, which is worth a good deal more than this silly participation in others’ weal and woe which is honoured by the name of sympathy, whereas in fact it is nothing but vanity. He who would only be a witness thereby avows that no man, not even the lowliest, needs another man’s sympathy or should be abased that another may be exalted. But since he did not win what he won at a cheap price, neither does he sell it out at a cheap price, he is not petty enough to take men’s admiration and give them in return his silent contempt, he knows that what is truly great is equally accessible to all.”