We can begin only by reforming ourselves. To make general demands for social and political reform is fruitless.

"We can begin only by reforming ourselves. To make general demands for social and political reform is fruitless. It is easy to say how other people should be, but students of esoteric knowledge must work in the depths and not on the surface.

It would, therefore, be quite wrong to connect the demands of esoteric schooling with any external demand for reform or even political change. The education of the spirit has nothing to do with such things.

Political activists generally know what to ask of other people, but they hardly ever talk about asking anything of themselves. As esoteric students, we must find the middle ground between following the demands of the world and doing what we see as the right thing to do.

We must not force upon others something that they cannot understand, but at the same time, we must be free of the urge to do only what those around us recognize and approve of.

Only the inner voice of the soul, as it honestly strives for higher knowledge, can confirm our truths. Yet we must also learn as much as possible about our environment and find out what is useful and good for it.

And, if we do so, we will develop within ourselves what esoteric science calls “the spiritual scales” or the “balance”—on one of whose trays lies a helpful heart, open to the needs of the world, and on the other, inner firmness and unshakable endurance."

- Rudolf Steiner