You Do Not Build Your Own Houses,

By What Sort Of Experience Are We Led To The Conviction That Spirit Exists? On The Whole, By Searching, Painful Experience. The Rose Religion Grows On A Thorn-bush, And We Must Not Be Afraid To Have Our Fingers Lacerated By The Thorns If We Would Pluck The Rose.

There Is As Yet No Civilized Society, But Only A Society In The Process Of Becoming Civilized. There Is As Yet No Civilized Nation, But Only Nations In The Process Of Becoming Civilized. From This Standpoint, We Can Now Speak Of A Collective Task Of Humankind. The Task Of Humanity Is To Build A Genuine Civilization.

The Infinite, From Which Comes The Impulse That Lead Us To Activity, Is Not The Highest Reason, But Higher Than Reason; Not The Highest Goodness, But Higher Than Goodness.

An Optimist Is A Person Who Sees Only The Lights In The Picture, Whereas A Pessimist Sees Only The Shadows. An Idealist, However, Is One Who Sees The Light And The Shadows, But In Addition Sees Something Else: The Possibility Of Changing The Picture, Of Making The Lights Prevail Over The Shadows.

Every Dogma, Every Philosophic Or Theological Creed, Was At Its Inception A Statement In Terms Of The Intellect Of A Certain Inner Experience.