Our material civilization has progressed greatly with the
perfection of the crafts and the forward steps of material science, but our
spiritual civilization, that which is based on divine morals, has declined and
become degraded. We should strive to make our material civilization the purest
possible medium, the most unclouded glass, through which the light of our
spiritual civilization must shine.
- 'Abdu'l-Baha (Words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha to a number of
clergymen who called on April 13, 1912 in New York city; recorded by Dr. Zia
Baghdadi, ‘Abdu’l-Baha in America’, Star of the West, vol. 19, no. 2, May
1928)
