Daily we are experiencing that there actually lives a fear of the new and unknown in the souls of many people. They come and say, ‘ What is brought to us here is in contradiction with proven scientific results.’ Often such a supposed proof is firmly believed in and it is hardly possible to penetrate the preconceived thought patterns. But these thought combinations are nothing else but a pleasant mask with which the fear of the new and unknown clothes itself. And because it’s so nice to be able to say to oneself: one can prove something with logic, all arguments speak against this new way of looking at the world, one hides the fear; a fear that one would be ashamed of when one can see it in its true form. Even much that nowadays is merited as scientifically sound, which occurs with seemingly strict logic is nothing else but the masked inner fear for the new and unknown.
Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 77b–Kunst und Anthroposophie, Der Goetheanum-Impuls – Dornach, 21 August 1921 (page 18)
Translated by Nesta Carsten-Krüger
Previously posted on December 2, 2014
The great Rudolf Steiner Quotes Site 