Albert Schweitzer Quotes

The true worth of a man is not to be found in man himself, but in the colours and textures that come alive in others.

It seemed to me a matter of course that we should all take our share of the burden of pain which lies upon the world.

To me, good health is more than just exercise and diet. Its really a point of view and a mental attitude you have about yourself.

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 are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.

By respect for life we become religious in a way that is elementary, profound and alive.

A good example has twice the value of good advice

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.

A thinking man feels compelled to approach all life with the same reverence he has for his own.

Sincerity is the foundation of the spiritual life.

Our age is bent on trying to make the barren tree of skepticism fruitful by tying the fruits of truth on its branches.

The quiet conscience is the invention of the devil. No one of us may permit any preventable pain to be inflicted even though the responsibility for that pain is not ours. No one may shut his eyes and think that the pain which is therefore not visible, is non-existent.

Any profound view of the world is mysticism. It has, of course, to deal with life and the world, both of which are nonrational entities.

Let your life be your argument.

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.

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always.

The Christ of Theology is not alive for us today. He is wrapped in the grave cloths of dogma.

What we call love is in its essence reverence for life.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

You must learn to understand the secret of gratitude. It is more than just so-called virtue. It is revealed to you as a mysterious law of existence. In obedience to it we have to fulfill our destiny.

The only way out of today's misery is for people to become worthy of each other's trust.

The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions.

We ought all to make an effort to act on our first thoughts and let our unspoken gratitude find expression. Then there will be more sunshine in the world, and more power to work for what is good.

If you study life deeply, its profundity will seize you suddenly with dizziness.

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.

Today . . . we know that all living beings who strive to maintain life and who long to be spared pain - all living beings on earth - are our neighbors.

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.

If you own something you cannot give away, then you don't own it, it owns you.

Who can describe the injustice and the cruelties that in the course of centuries the peoples of color of the world have suffered at the hands of Europeans?... We and our civilization are burdened, really, with a great debt. We are not free to confer benefits on these men, or not, as we please; it is our duty. Anything we give them is not benevolence but atonement.

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.

Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil. Affirmation of the world - that is affirmation of the will to live, which appears in phenomenal forms all around me - is only possible for me in that I give myself out for other life.

Profound love demands a deep conception and out of this develops reverence for the mystery of life. It brings us close to all beings, to the poorest and smallest as well as all others.

If the extension of your compassion does not include all living beings, then you will be unable to find peace by yourself.

All the kindness which a man puts out into the world works on the heart and thoughts of mankind.

All people are endowed with the faculty of compassion, and for this reason can develop the humanitarian spirit.

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.

By ethical conduct toward all creatures, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the universe.

Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself.

By respect for life we become religious in a way that is elementary, profound and alive. Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them. In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. - Albert Schweitzer

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.

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.

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.

The elemental fact, present in our consciousness every moment of our existence, is: I am life that wills to live, in the midst of life that wills to live.... The essence of the humane spirit is: Preserve life, promote life, help life to achieve its highest destiny. The essence of Evil is: Destroy life, harm life, hamper the development of life

Love is the only thing that increases twofold every time it is shared.

There is no higher religion than human service.