The body is like the crystal and the spirit is like the light. Though the crystal be extremely transparent, its brilliancy and splendor belong to the brightness of the light. To be luminous, the light does not need the crystal, but the crystal to be bright needs the light. Even so the spirit does not live by the body, but the body lives by the spirit.
(From ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s address to the Alliance Spiritualiste of Paris, November 9th, 1911; Star of the West, vol. II, no. 17)
