On Seeking Truth

By Charles M. Sumid Written circa 1973

Non in certitudine veritas habitat,
sed in ipso quaerendi actu vivit—
sicut nauta per noctem stellas sequens
non stellam tenet, sed cursum dirigit.

Truth does not dwell in certainty, but lives in the very act of seeking— as a sailor following stars through night does not hold the star, but directs his course.

Quid est sapientia nisi via sine fine?
Quid est scientia nisi sitis perpetua?
Mens humana, fragilis et audax,
ad ignota semper tendit brachia.

What is wisdom but a road without end? What is knowledge but perpetual thirst? The human mind, fragile and bold, always stretches arms toward the unknown.

Ecce philosophus in silentio noctis:
non responsa quaerit, sed quaestiones;
non thesaurum invenit, sed iter facit
per umbras ad lucem incertam.

Behold the philosopher in night’s silence: he seeks not answers, but questions; he finds no treasure, but makes a journey through shadows toward uncertain light.

Felix ille qui dubitat et pergit,
qui fallit et iterum conatur,
qui scit se nescire, et tamen
ad veritatem iter incipit.

Happy is he who doubts and continues, who fails and tries again, who knows that he does not know, and yet begins the journey toward truth.

Nam veritas non est praemium victoris
sed comes fidelis quaerentis—
in ipso quaerere, in ipso tendere,
in ipso dubitare habitat.

For truth is not the prize of the victor but the faithful companion of the seeker— in the seeking itself, in the striving itself, in the doubting itself, it dwells.