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New Era Community (1926) - 91:
91. Why is it necessary to be awkward? Why is it necessary to create an impression of ignorance? Why must those who adhere to Us be neglectful? Why must they adopt quarrelsome manner when a dispute is going on? Why must they prattle without end? Go around unwarranted dirt. You see how necessary it is to emphasize each detail; otherwise the customs of Our Community will not be strengthened in you. New Era Community (1926) - 228:
Life has been divided according to periods and to styles, paying tribute to the measures of imperfect days. Who apportioned the constellations? Who apportioned the dialects? Has anyone called to mind the inheritances of all peoples? Style has determined the peculiarities of the age. The external notches of a design bear the prejudices and conventionalities of falsehood. It is time to divide inheritances only according to the inner potential. It is necessary to know the accruements of life. Coffin shapes must be left to the dead. True, one should sense the steps of culture, but disregard the zigzags of effeminateness. Faint-heartedness shut up in awkward armor did not lead to pan-human joy, but the retort of a modest alchemist has often been illumined by the Common Good. Without superstition must we examine the milestones of the growth of humanity under the sign of the community. We must examine how the victory of the community grew, in the kindling fires of knowledge and beauty. True knowledge and beauty contain in themselves the best community. New Era Community (1926) - 245:
245. Adaptability is the best means for conservation of forces. Often it is asked how to develop this quality. The development of adaptability actually takes place in the current of life. To all is known the sensation of the boundaries of spheres. When you go out of a playhouse into a gray street, it seems to you that you have fallen into a lower sphere. When after solemn festivities you turn to ordinary toil, you become struck with the sad everydayness. When out of the dismal cold you enter a beautiful building, it appears to be the crown of perfection. A sluggish adaptability produces a series of false concepts. This falseness makes you timid and awkward. People cringe before the mirage of an effect. They constrict their own concepts before something unexpected, whereas everything must take place in an opposite manner. Sternly accustom yourselves to the reception of contrasting sensations, to the grasping of unexpectedness. All is expected, because all is realized.
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