38. The Ideals of Humanity and the Ideals of the Initiates
GA 68b/1906-01-16/p010
·1906-01-16
·
English
HighHigh alignmentThis translation's paragraph count matches the German original — the locus maps cleanly to the same paragraph in DE.
Record: listeners' notes. Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word. Evidence: «Da keine professionellen Stenogramme vorliegen, handelt es sich oftmals um notizenhaft festgehaltene Zusammenfassungen oder Berichte.» (Since no professional shorthand transcripts exist, these are often summaries or reports kept in the form of notes.). The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 68b). The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.
The great geniuses of the world have become great by making their own the affairs in which they had no personal interest. Furthermore, we achieve this devotional mood when we do what we have recognized as being right without looking for personal success. This does not contradict in terms of external effect; but we should decide in the most important matters of our external life in such a way that we are able to say: I almost certainly foresee that my first or second or third attempt will fail, but nevertheless I undertake it. – So not looking at the success. This is, of course, put radically, and in life many things will be different; but it is the attitude that matters.
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