Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.
Albert SchweitzerTrain yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.
Albert SchweitzerWe all owe to others much of the gentleness and wisdom that we have made our own; and we may well ask ourselves what will others owe to us
Albert SchweitzerWe 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.
Albert SchweitzerVery little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty, therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come.
Albert SchweitzerBut merely accepting authoritarian truth, even if that truth has some virtue, does not bring skepticism to an end. To blindly accept a truth one has never reflected upon retards the advance of reason. Our world rots in deceit. . . . Just as a tree bears the same fruit year after year and at the same time fruit that is new each year, so must all permanently valuable ideas be continually created anew in thought. But our age pretends to make a sterile tree bear fruit by tying fruits of truth onto its branches.
Albert Schweitzer