“Man is in opposition to the outside world. The soul-mind strives to constantly absorbe him. 

This is why we are flaking off, chipping off all the time.

And when the spirit is not strong enough, we have to cut off pieces, like fingernails; because the spirit, infiltrating from the outside, desires to primingly destroy them.”(Rudolf Steiner)

Source: Rudolf Steiner, „Allgemeine Menschenkunde als Grundlage der Pädagogik“, GA 293, Pages 93f