Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist.
Rudolf Steiner became popular as a literary critic and cultural philosopher. He founded a spiritual movement, anthroposophy, as an esoteric philosophy growing out of idealist philosophy at the beginning of the 20th century.
Steiner established many practical endeavors, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Rudolf Steiner Quotes On Education
Check out these Rudolf Steiner quotes on learning, education, and teachers.
“Reverence, enthusiasm, and a sense of guardianship, these three are actually the panacea, the magical remedy, in the soul of the educator and teacher.”
"All knowledge pursued for growth to ripeness within the process of human ennoblement and cosmic development brings you a step forward.”
“To educate the whole child, his heart and his will must be reached, as well as the mind.”
“Receive the children in reverence, educate them in love, and send them forth in freedom.”
“You have no idea how unimportant is all that the teacher says or does not say on the surface, and how important what he himself is as a teacher.”
“Today, we have knowledge of many, many things and the relations among human beings have multiplied ad infinitum.”
“Where is the book in which the teacher can read about what teaching is? The children themselves are this book.
"Most naughtiness arises because the children are bored and lack a relationship with the teacher."
“Little is accomplished if one tries to understand these words theoretically."
“You will not be good teachers if you focus only on what you do and not upon who you are.”
"It is important that we discover an educational method where people learn to learn and go on learning their whole lives."
"Intuition is for thinking while observation is for perception. Intuition and observation are the sources of our knowledge."
“The student of mathematics must get rid of all arbitrary thinking and follow purely the demands of thought."
"If humanity is to live in the future in a socially right way, humanity must educate its children in a socially right way."
"Anthroposophy does not want to impart knowledge. It seeks to awaken life."
"We should not learn to teach out of any book other than the one lying open before us and consisting of the children themselves.”
“The sensory world is the school, without which the human being would never come to the spirit.”
“Today, we have knowledge of many, many things and the relations among human beings have multiplied ad infinitum."
“All knowledge pursued merely for the enrichment of personal learning and the accumulation of personal treasure leads you away from the path"
Rudolf Steiner Quotes On Spirituality
These quotes will take you into the realms of the spiritual.
“The outer world, with all its phenomena, is filled with divine splendor, but we must have experienced the divine within ourselves before we can discover it in our environment.”
“The higher worlds are around us.”
“Truthfulness, uprightness, and honesty are in this connection creative forces, while mendacity, deceitfulness, and dishonesty are destructive forces.”
“Truth is a free creation of the human spirit, that never would exist at all if we did not generate it ourselves.”
“For what lies inside the human being is the whole spiritual cosmos in condensed form.”
“All the great Founders of religions have been possessed of clairvoyant sight.”
“He who is unwilling to trust to the power of thinking cannot, in fact, enlighten himself regarding higher spiritual facts.”
"Each one of us has it in themselves to be a free spirit, just as every rose bud has in it a rose."
"In the future, every human shall see a hidden divinity in every fellow human."
“No soul could thrive if love departed from the world. Love is the “moral” Sun of the world.”
“When the human being hears music, he has a sense of wellbeing, because these tones harmonize with what he has experienced in the world of his spiritual home.”
“Intuition is the conscious experience – in pure spirit – of a purely spiritual content.”
“Man is not a being who stands still, he is a being in the process of becoming.”
“When the spirit most closely approaches the physical earth, then we have the perception of fragrance.”
“In our inner organism, we have an image of the entire cosmos.”
“Truth is a free creation of the human spirit, that never would exist at all if we did not generate it ourselves.”
“For even the wisest can learn incalculably much from children.”
“If we do not believe within ourselves this deeply rooted feeling that there is something higher than ourselves, we shall never find the strength to evolve into something higher.”
“The history of our spiritual life is a continuing search for the unity between ourselves and the world.”
“The stars once spoke to man. It is world destiny that they are silent now, but in their silence there grows and ripens what man speaks to the stars!”
"Wherever love and compassion are active in life, we can perceive the magic breath of the spirit blowing through the sense world."
“To understand the nature of love – that is to be a true Christian.”
“In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita with full understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it.”
“Reverence awakens in the soul a sympathetic power through which we attract qualities in the beings around us, which would otherwise remain concealed.”
"For every step in spiritual perception, three steps are to be taken in moral development."
“That which secures life from exhaustion lies in the unseen world, deep at the roots of things.”
“We differ from one another in our individual gifts which, however, belong to our inner nature.”
“We find the instrument for the Knowledge of God in ourselves but we find God everywhere.”
“When the past has taught us that we have more within us than we have ever used, our prayer is a cry to the divine to come to us and fill us with its power.”
"Spirit is never without matter, matter is never without spirit."
"Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe."
"A man develops in himself soul and spiritual organs of perception through which the soul and spiritual worlds are opened to him."
“That which secures life from exhaustion lies in the unseen world, deep at the roots of things.”
“In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita with full understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it.”
"From thee stream light and strength to thee rise love and thanks.”
“Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives.
"The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibility – these three forces are the very nerve of education.”
"We have to live over into the other; we have to dissolve with our soul into the other."
"Heights of the spirit can only be climbed by passing through the portals of humility."
“That which secures life from exhaustion lies in the unseen world, deep at the roots of things.”
Rudolf Steiner Quotes On Nature & Art
See what Rudolf Steiner has to say about the beauty of nature and art.
“Anthroposophy is not a game, nor just a theory; it is a task that must be faced for the sake of human evolution.”
"Anthroposophists are those who experience, as an essential need of life, certain questions on the nature of the human being and the universe, just as one experiences hunger and thirst."
“All real philosophers have been artists in the realm of concepts.”
“Beauty is not the divine in a cloak of physical reality; no, it is physical reality in a cloak that is divine.”
“The art is eternal, their shapes are changing.”
“When human beings meet together seeking the spirit with unity of purpose then they will also find their way to each other...”
“He remembers that it was said to him, "Our ancestors were animal forms." But he does not remember that these forms were gods. This is the psychological basis for the emergence of Darwinism.”
“Sounds that were previously incomprehensible to our soul now become the meaningful language of nature.”
"What is necessary to keep providing good care to nature has completely fallen into ignorance during the materialism era."
“The thing itself is one; the images are many."
"There will be as much deceit and criminality in the world as there is lack of art."
"I believe that there is a healing potential locked inside plants which is integral with their evolution, just as it is part of human evolution to learn to tap this wonderful gift of Nature.”
“When the human being sings he lends expression to the great wise ways in which the world was made.”
“It is the death of present art when it returns again and again to the model.”
"In the future, no human being is to find peace in the enjoyment of happiness if others beside him are unhappy."
“Colour is the soul of Nature and of the entire cosmos...”
“All of nature begins to whisper its secrets to us through its sounds.”
"For every human illness, somewhere in the world, there exists a plant which is the cure."
"All genuine art seeks the spirit."
“The pyramids will perish in the course of the centuries but the ideas which gave them birth will develop onwards."
"We are the same souls who, in Egypt, received the pictures of the animal forms of man's forebears."
"The old views have awakened again, but man has descended more deeply into the material world."
“Not that which inspires the creation, but that which may be; not the actual, but the possible.”
"Music is the expression of the will of nature while all other arts are expressions of the idea of nature."
“The pyramids will perish in the course of the centuries but the ideas which gave them birth will develop onwards."
"To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world."
Rudolf Steiner Quotes On Gratitude
These Rudolf Steiner quotes will make you see the benefits of gratitude.
"Gratitude connects people with the world, makes them feel part of the world."
"Here the only justified attitude toward happiness and joy is one of gratitude."
"In sunlight shining clear, I revere, Oh God, the strength of humankind, which thou has planted in my soul"
"One can develop love in the best possible way through gratitude."
"The subconsciousness develops a certain feeling of gratitude towards every impression"
"Grateful for his mistakes, man should be the gods, because by overcoming the faults the stronger force is developed."
"The sun with loving light makes bright for me each day, the soul with spirit power gives strength unto my limbs."
Miscellaneous Rudolf Steiner Quotes
Here are some other Rudolf Steiner quotes to inspire you.
"Live through deeds of love, and let others live with tolerance for their unique intentions."
"Man is effective in the world not only through what he does, but above all through what he is."
"Today certain definite ideas are developing out of the Egyptian ideas."
“Our egoism gains nothing from acts of love, but the world gains all the more.”
“Because of their very nature, science and logical thinking can never decide what is possible or impossible.”
“Live through deeds of love, and let others live with tolerance for their unique intentions.”
“Only when I follow my love for my objective is it I myself who acts.”
“Without common sense, all thine efforts are in vain.”
"The science of the future will be based on sympathetic vibrations."
"Spiritual science attempts to speak about non-sensory things in the same way that the natural sciences speak about sense-perceptible things."
"Each individual is a species unto him/herself."
“Love starts when we push aside our ego and make room for someone else.”
"Our highest endeavor must be to develop individuals who are able out of their own initiative to impart purpose & direction to their lives."
"Every day, something must be achieved inwardly."
“The time has come to realize that supersensible knowledge has now to arise from the materialistic grave.”
“May my soul bloom in love for all existence.”
"Where the realm of freedom of thought and action begins, the determination of individuals according to generic laws ends."
"For human beings, love is the most important fruit of experience in the sense world."
"We are fully human only while playing, and we play only when we are human in the truest sense of the word."
"The smallest thing in its rightful place can lead to the highest goals."
“If a child has been able in his play to give up his whole loving being to the world around him, he will be able, in the serious tasks of later life, to devote himself with confidence and power to the service of the world.”
"Nothing is better for the human being than to add the right amount of honey to his food."
“Feelings are for the soul what food is for the body.”
“Knowledge of life in the astral world leads us to a conclusion of fundamental importance, namely that the physical world is the product of the astral world.”
“In so far as we think, we are the all-one being that pervades everything.”
"Our task is to harvest from the mortal world fruits for the immortal."
“A beggar on earth than a king in the realm of shades.”
“These fourteen phases from full moon to new also have their result, and for the Egyptian consciousness, this result was achieved through Isis. These fourteen phases are ruled by Isis.”
"I ask you to write this deeply into your souls . . . the materialistic culture . . . is now on the way to its close."
“Some day, when I have grown sufficiently, I shall attain that which I am destined to attain.”
"If there is something more powerful than destiny, this must be the human being who bears destiny unshaken."
“To be free is to be capable of thinking one’s own thoughts.”
“When the past has taught us that we have more within us than we have ever used, our prayer is a cry to the divine to come to us and fill us with its power.”
