Rudolf Steiner, having worked intensely to develop anthroposophy, especially during the last 23 years of his life, formulated a number of leading thoughts in an effort to summarize anthroposophy.
From this perspective, he expressed:
“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe. It arises in man as a need of the heart, of the life of feeling; and it can be justified only inasmuch as it can satisfy this inner need. He alone can acknowledge anthroposophy, who finds in it what he himself in his own inner life feels impelled to seek. Hence only they can be anthroposophists who feel certain questions on the nature of man and the universe as an elemental need of life, just as one feels hunger and thirst.” –Steiner, Rudolf. Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973
Read more about Anthroposophy and the foundation of Waldorf education.