[654] "So it seems, Bhāradvāja, that among the brahmins there is not anyone, not even a single brahmin, who says thus: 'This I know, this I see: this alone is truth, anything else is false.' There is not anyone among the brahmins, not even a single teacher, nor a single teacher of teachers, back through seven generations of teachers, who says thus: 'This I know, this I see: this alone is truth, anything else is false.' And even those ancient seers of the brahmins, the makers of the hymns (mantā), the promulgators of the hymns, whose ancient hymnal—sung, recited, and compiled—the brahmins nowadays still sing after them and recite after them, chanting what was chanted and reciting what was recited—namely, Aṭṭhaka, Vāmaka, Vāmadeva, Vessāmitta, Yamataggi, Aṅgīrasa, Bhāradvāja, Vāseṭṭha, Kassapa, and Bhagu—even they did not say thus: 'This we know, this we see: this alone is truth, anything else is false.'
"Bhāradvāja, suppose there were a file of blind men, each attached to the one in front: the first one does not see, the middle one does not see, and the last one does not see. Even so, Bhāradvāja, the statement of the brahmins turns out, it seems to me, to be like a file of blind men: the first one does not see, the middle one does not see, and the last one does not see. What do you think, Bhāradvāja? That being so, does not the faith (saddhā) of the brahmins turn out to be baseless?"
"Master Gotama, in this matter the brahmins do not honor this out of faith alone; in this matter the brahmins honor it also on the ground of oral tradition."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.