I know that superficial critics may say, “You are a fool; you believe that spiritual powers come to you from without, whereas they simply rise from your own inner being.” Let them think me a fool; I regard them as belonging to the clever men who cannot distinguish hunger from a piece of bread. I know how spiritual powers from without flow into human beings. The idea that hunger creates the bread that satisfies it — believed only by a crazy man — is as false as that the power of our own soul can create the forces needed for our spiritual activities. These forces must flow into us. Just as we know clearly that our hunger is within us, and that bread comes from without, does one who lives in spiritual worlds know what is within himself and what comes to him from without.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 152 – The Four Sacrifices of Christ – Basel, June 1, 1914
Translated by May Laird-Brown, and edited for this edition by Gilbert Church, Ph.D.
Previously posted on January 12, 2017
The great Rudolf Steiner Quotes Site 