Welcome to our collection of quotes (with shareable picture quotes) by Albert Schweitzer. We hope you enjoy pondering them and that you will share them widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Albert Schweitzer
Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (German: [ˈalbɛʁt ˈʃvaɪ̯t͡sɐ]; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian polymath. He was a theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by the historical-critical method current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view. His contributions to the interpretation of Pauline Christianity concern the role of Paul's mysticism of "being in Christ" as primary and the doctrine of Justification by Faith as secondary.
He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of "Reverence for Life", becoming the eighth Frenchman to be awarded that prize. His philosophy was expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, which up to 1958 was situated in French Equatorial Africa, and after this in Gabon. As a music scholar and organist, he studied the music of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and influenced the Organ Reform Movement (Orgelbewegung).
To me, good health is more than just exercise and diet. It's really a point of view and a mental attitude you have about yourself.
Therapy is the boat across the river, but most don't want to get off. Don't blame, forgive, All healing is self-healing.
Rational thinking which is free from assumptions ends therefore in mysticism.
Longer Version:
Rational thinking which is free from assumptions ends therefore in mysticism. To relate oneself in the spirit of reverence for life to the multiform manifestations of the will-to-live which together constitute the world is ethical mysticism. All profound world-view is mysticism, the essence of which is just this: that out of my unsophisticated and naïve existence in the world there comes, as a result of thought about self and the world, spiritual self-devotion to the mysterious infinite Will which is continuously manifested in the universe.
The future of civilisation depends on our overcoming the meaninglessness and hopelessness that characterizes the thoughts of men today.
Longer Version:
The future of civilization depends on our overcoming the meaninglessness and hopelessness which characterize the thoughts and convictions of men today, and reaching a state of fresh hope and fresh determination.
By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world by practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive.
Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who have need of a man's help -- something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For, remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here, too.
I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who have need of help., something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here, too.
At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
Not less strong than the will to truth must be the will to sincerity. Only an age, which can show the courage of sincerity, can possess truth, which works as a spiritual force within it.
Ideals are thoughts. So long as they exist merely as thoughts, the power in them remains ineffective.
Man can no longer live for himself alone. We must realize that all life is valuable and that we are united to all life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship with the universe.
The disastrous feature of our civilization is that it is far more developed materially than spiritually. Its balance is disturbed.
I am certain and have always stressed that the destination of mankind is to become more and more humane. The ideal of humanity has to be revived.
All people are endowed with the faculty of compassion, and for this reason can develop the humanitarian spirit.
I too had thoughts once of being an intellectual, but I found it too difficult.
Mysticism occurs whenever a human being sees the separation between the natural and the supernatural, between the temporal and the eternal, as overcome.
The the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hope are optimistic.
Reincarnation contains a most comforting explanation of reality by means of which Indian thought surmounts difficulties which baffle the thinkers of Europe.
Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.
In resigning ourselves to our fate without a struggle, we are guilty of inhumanity.
Don't stop to ask whether the animal or plant you meet deserves your sympathy, or how much it feels, or even whether it can feel at all: respect it and consider all life sacred.
We must all die. But that I can save him from days of torture, that is what I feel as my great and ever new privilege. Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself.
The tragedy in a man's life is what dies inside of him while he lives.
Your life is something opaque, not transparent, as long as you look at it in an ordinary human way. But if you hold it up against the light of God's goodness, it shines and turns transparent, radiant and bright. And then you ask yourself in amazement: Is this really my own life I see before me?
The most difficult thing I have ever had to do is follow the guidance I prayed for.
It is not enough to merely exist. It's not enough to say, 'I'm earning enough to live and support my family. I do my work well. I'm a good parent.' That's all very well. But you must do something more.
Longer Version:
It is not enough merely to exist. It's not enough to say, "I'm earning enough to support my family. I do my work well. I'm a good father, husband, churchgoer." That's all very well. But you must do something more. Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.
When man learns to respect even the smallest being of creation...nobody has to teach him to love his fellow man. Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.
We need a boundless ethics which will include animals also.
Longer Version:
We need a boundless ethic, one which will include the animals, too. Until we extend the circle of his compassions to all living things, we will not find peace.
The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics.
The great fault of all ethics hitherto has been that they believed themselves to have to deal only with the relations of man to man. In reality, however, the question is what is his attitude to the world and all life that comes within his reach.
Living truth is that alone which has its origins in thinking. Just as a tree bears year after year the same fruit which is each year new, so must all permanently valuable ideas be continually born again in thought.
There is much coldness among men because we do not dare to be as cordial as we really are.
Try to tell the people of America about Dr. Gerson's merits and ...results...I wish you the best in your difficult task.
Most men are scantily nourished on a modicum of happiness and a number of empty thoughts which life lays on their plates. They are kept in the road of life through stern necessity by elemental duties which they cannot avoid.
No man need fear death, he need fear only that he may die without having known his greatest power: the power of his free will to give his life for others.
Those who experiment on animals should never be able to quiet their own conscience by telling themselves that these cruelties have a worthy aim.
Because I have confidence in the power of truth, and of the spirit, I have confidence in the future of mankind.
Longer Version:
Because I have confidence in the power of truth and in the spirit, I believe in the future of mankind. Affirmation of the world and of life contains within itself an optimistic willing and hoping which can never be lost. It is, therefore, never afraid to face the dismal reality and to see it as it really is.
The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions.
Pablo Casals is a great musician in all he does: a cellist without equal, and extraordinary conductor and composer with something to say. I have been profoundly impressed by all I have heard of his work, but he is a musician of this stature because he is also a great man.
I see in him (Dr. Max Gerson) one of the most eminent medical geniuses in the history of medicine...he was greatly impeded by adverse political conditions.
There can be no Kingdom of God in the world without the Kingdom of God in our hearts.
We are gripped by God's will of love, and must help carry out that will in this world, in small things as in great things, in saving as in pardoning. To be glad instruments of God's love in this imperfect world is the service to which we are called.
It is only through love that we can attain to communion with God. All living knowledge of God rests upon this foundation: that we experience him in our lives as Will-to-love.
I do not know what your destiny may be, but I do know this, that not one of you will find the happiness that each of you is seeking until you have first sought and found a way in which to unselfishly serve others.
At that point in life where your talent meets the needs of the world, that is where God wants you to be.
Thought is the strongest thing we have. Work done by true and profound thought -- that is a real force.
Do not lose heart, even if you must wait a bit before finding the right thing. Be prepared for disappointment also, but do not abandon the quest.
The ethic of Reverence for Life is the ethic of Love widened into universality.
Reverence for life brings us into a spiritual relation with the world which is independent of all knowledge of the universe.
The fellowship of those who bear the mark of pain: who are the members of this Fellowship? Those who have learnt by experience what physical pain and bodily anguish mean, belong together all the world over; they are united by a secret bond.
By ethical conduct toward all creatures, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the universe.
My view is that we stand up for treating the animals in a considerate way, for completely renouncing the eating of meat and also for speaking out against it. This is what I do myself. And in this way many a one becomes aware of a problem that was put forward so late.
Search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.
The thinking man must oppose all cruelties no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo.
Longer Version:
The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo. We need a boundless ethics which will include the animals also. My life is full of meaning to me. The life around me must be full of significance to it. If I want others to respect my life, then I must respect the other life I see however strange it may be to mine. Ethics in our western world has hitherto been largely limited to the relation of man to man... but that is a limited ethics.
Every person I have known who has been truly happy has learned how to serve others.
Faith which refuses to face indisputable facts is but little faith. Truth is always gain, however hard it is to accommodate ourselves to it. To linger in any kind of untruth proves to be a departure from the straight way of faith.
Every start on an untrodden path is a venture which only in unusual circumstances looks sensible and likely to succeed.
Each act of unfaithfulness toward our inner being is a blot on our souls. If we continue to be unfaithful, our souls are eventually torn apart and we slowly bleed to death.
Affirmation of the world, which means affirmation of the will-to-live that manifests itself around me, is only possible if I devote myself to other life.
The witch doctor succeeds for the same reason all the rest of us succeed. Each patient carries his or her own doctor inside him or her. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work.
The stronger the reverence for natural life, the stronger grows also that for spiritual life.
The interior joy we feel when we have done a good deed is the nourishment the soul requires.
Don't let your hearts grow numb. Stay alert. It is your soul which matters.
The last fact which knowledge can discover is that the world is a manifestation, and in every way a puzzling manifestation, of the universal will to live.
Late on the third day, at the very moment when, at sunset, ..., there flashed upon my mind, unforeseen and unsought, the phrase Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben (reverence for life).
I used to suffer particularly because the poor animals must endure so much pain and want. The sight of an old, limping horse being dragged along by one man while another man struck him with
a stick he was being driven to the Colmar slaughterhouse -- haunted me for weeks.
The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery.
Longer Version:
The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery. Neither knowledge nor hope for the future can be the pivot of our life or determine its direction. It is intended to be solely determined by our allowing ourselves to be gripped by the ethical God, who reveals Himself in us, and by our yielding our will to His.
The gratitude ascending from man to God is the supreme transaction between earth and heaven.
Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter -- to all these music gives voice.
Longer Version:
Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter -- to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way, as if we were sitting by a mountain lake and contemplating hills and woods and clouds in the tranquil and fathomless water.
All art speaks in signs and symbols. No one can explain how it happens that the artist can waken to life in us the existence that he has seen and lives through. No artistic speech is the adequate expression of what it represents; its vital force comes from what is unspoken in it.
Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live unreflectively and begins to devote himself to his life with reverence in order to raise it to its true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will.
In modern European thought a tragedy is occurring in that the original bonds uniting the affirmative attitude towards the world with ethics are, by a slow but irresistible process, loosening and finally parting. Out of my life and Thought.
O heavenly Father,
protect and bless all things
that have breath: guard them
from all evil and let them sleep in peace.
I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
It is through the idealism of youth that man catches sight of truth, and in that idealism he possesses a wealth which he must never exchange for anything else.
In case my life should end with the cannibals, I hope they will write on my tombstone, 'We have eaten Dr. Schweitzer. He was good to the end.'
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