Rudolf Steiner Quotes

Those who would know the world, seek first within your beings' depths; those who would truly know themselves, develop interest in the world.

Our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves, and of our visible, sensible world.

He who looks without, dreams; he who looks within, awakes.

From early childhood, I was interested in understanding how the world worked, and assumed I would be some kind of physical scientist or chemist. But the truth was, I didn't know there was another kind of world, the inner world, that was just as interesting, if not more relevant, than what was going on in the outside world.

There's something very touching to me about someone almost communicating to themselves in some way - trying to come to some deeper understanding of yourself and having compassion for yourself.

He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature.

The true cure for self-righteousness is self-knowledge.

What you are looking for is within you

To develop our real selves, we need time alone for thought and meditation. To be always giving out and never pumping in, the well runs dry.

If you do not go within, you without

The exploration of oneself is usually also an exploration of the world at large, of other writers, a process of comparison with oneself with others, discoveries of kinships, gradual illumination of one's own potentialities.

To successfully open the door to heightened awareness, we must open it inward.

Gently resist the temptation to chase your dreams into the world; pursue them in your heart until they disappear into the Self, and leave them there.

To know the whole world is nothing when it is compared to knowing your own inner mystery of life.

That which is nearest is least observed. The Atman is the nearest of the near, therefore the careless and the unsteady mind gets no clue to it. But the person who is alert, calm, self-restrained, and discriminating ignores the external world and, diving more and more into the inner world, realizes the glory of the Atman and becomes great.

Individualization does not shut one out from the world, but gathers the world to oneself.

We must each achieve greater individual consciousness and self-knowledge, and project mindful kindness toward everything and everyone.

Examination of the world without is never as personally painful as examination of the world within.

We gotta be willing to seek direction ... we've gotta be willing to look within.

It is what I was born for - to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world - to instruct myself over and over.

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves. That is why we have teaching. But the teaching is not ourselves. It is some explanation of ourselves. To study the teaching is to know yourselves. That is why we do not ever attach to the teaching, or to the teacher. The moment you meet a teacher you should leave the teacher, and you should be independent. You want a teacher so that you can be independent. So you study yourselves. You have the teacher for yourselves, not for the teacher.

Opening to oneself fully is opening to the world.

Stop looking for something out there and begin seeing within.

I have always tried to make room for anything that wanted to come to me from within.

Living consciously is seeking to be aware of everything that bears on our interests, actions, values, purposes, and goals. It is the willingness to confront facts, pleasant or unpleasant. It is the desire to discover our mistakes and correct them . . . it is the quest to keep expanding our awareness and understanding, both of the world external to self and the world within.