“No one should think that when I mention the lower self, that this is necessarily something dreadfully sinful or wicked. Oh no, with so many, and all of you here, you have long, long ago passed this state of development where your lower self belonged to that category. But as long as a lower self is still in existence — and with every human being it is — it is still opposed to God, to His laws, and to the Godlike substance within you which wants to go forward, which wants the way of perfection, while the lower self constantly holds back. It is lazy, it does not want to change. This is its most significant quality and more important even than all individual faults. This is the same with everyone without any exception. He who has conquered his lower self — at least in the respect that it has understood once and for all that it has to give in, that you, your directive personality has chosen and determined that path of perfection on which you conquer your lower self — he is, indeed a happy person!” (PL #20)