That which holds back the awakening life of spring is the deadness of winter. That which is against warmth is deadening coldness. That which is against uniting love brings about disintegrating death. Death threatens life. Between light and darkness there is enmity and war to the last.
- Eberhard Arnold
- Eberhard Arnold, January 1920 From an EssayJustice and love demand that everyone take part in simple practical work with a spade, hatchet, or rake. Everyone should be ready to devote a few hours every day to this practical work; those who have done purely mental work till now will feel its humanizing effect especially. In this way it will be possible for each person’s unique gifts to be kindled. The light that flickers within each heart will then exhibit its once-hidden glow in scholarly research or in music, in expressive words, or in the craftsman’s art in wood, stone, or paint…such work will reveal the joy in life that is in each person. Only death knows idleness and tedium. Where there is life, the mind’s creative will remains alert and comes to expression in the service of the whole.
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Unless we share the need and guilt of the world, we fall a prey to untruthfulness and lifelessness, to eternal and physical death.
- Eberhard Arnold
The inner source of strength, which in silent stillness lets God himself speak and work, leads the believer from the decline of death to the dawn of life. This life forces its way outwards in the stream of creative spirit, and yet cannot lose itself in the outer world.
- Eberhard Arnold