Material not presently used about Steiner's reception:
- Stefan Zweig, Austrian novelist and writer:
- "I had expected great things from his questing intellect....In his fantastic and at the same time profound knowledge I realized that true universality, which we, with the overweening pride of high school boys, thought we had already mastered, was not to be gained by flighty reading and discussion, but only by years of burning endeavor. "[1]
- Ken Wilber, author and philosopher
- "[Steiner] was an extraordinary pioneer ... and one of the most comprehensive psychological and philosophical visionaries of his time.":
- Robert A. McDermott, philosopher and professor:
Negative reception of Steiner includes:
- Anthony Storr, author of the controversial "Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus":
- "His belief system is so eccentric, so unsupported by evidence, so manifestly bizarre, that rational skeptics are bound to consider it delusional.... [H]is so-called thinking, his supposed power of supersensible perception, led to a vision of the world, the universe, and of cosmic history which is entirely unsupported by any evidence, which is at odds with practically everything which modern physics and astronomy have revealed, and which is more like science fiction than anything else."
- Robert Carroll, atheist philosopher:
- "There is no question that Steiner made contributions in many fields, but as a philosopher, scientist, and artist he rarely rises above mediocrity and is singularly unoriginal."