Albert Schweitzer Quotes & Sayings

Nature compels us to recognize the fact of mutual dependence, each life necessarily helping the other lives who are linked to it. In the very fibers of our being, we bear within ourselves the fact of the solidarity of life. — Albert Schweitzer

A man does not have to be an angel to be a saint. — Albert Schweitzer

Who shall enumerate the many ways in which that costly piece of fixed capital, a human being , may be employed! More of him is wanted everywhere! Hunt, then, for some situation in which your humanity may be used. — Albert Schweitzer

My life carries its own meaning in itself. — Albert Schweitzer

Thinking about death ... produces love for life. When we are familiar with death, we accept each week, each day, as a gift. Only if we are able thus to accept life bit by bit does it become precious. — Albert Schweitzer

Hear our humble prayer, O God. Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to the animals. — Albert Schweitzer

It's supposed to be a secret, but I'll tell you anyway. We doctors do nothing. We only help. And encourage the doctor within. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

Preservation of life is the only true joy. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

We cannot abdicate our conscience to an organization, nor to a government. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

The great enemy of morality is indifference. — Albert Schweitzer

Knowing all truth is less than doing a little bit of good. — Albert Schweitzer

The future of civilisation depends on our overcoming the meaninglessness and hopelessness that characterizes the thoughts of men today. — Albert Schweitzer

Let your life be your argument. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

The friend of nature is the man who feels himself inwardly united with everything that lives in nature, who shares in the fate of all creatures, helps them when he can in their pain and need, and as far as possible avoids injuring or taking life. — Albert Schweitzer

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

Arguing from facts never wins a definitive victory against skillfully presented opinion. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

I am conscious that meat eatingis not in accordance with the finer feelings,and I abstain from it whenever I can. — Albert Schweitzer

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

I too had thoughts once of being an intellectual, but I found it too difficult. — Albert Schweitzer

A man who possesses a veneration of life will not simply say his prayers. He will throw himself into the battle to preserve life, if for no other reason than that he himself is an extension of life around him. — Albert Schweitzer

Passes he stands for a moment close to us, as though illumined by a flash of lightning. Then we see him as he really is. After — Albert Schweitzer

It is not always granted to the sower to see the harvest. — Albert Schweitzer

The quiet conscience is an invention of the devil — Albert Schweitzer

He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside,
He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is. — Albert Schweitzer

Serious illness doesn't bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host. — Albert Schweitzer

I believe that I possess this value: to serve Jesus. I am less at peace than if my goal would be to attain a professorship and a good life, but I live. And that gives me the tremendous feeling of happiness, as if one would hear music. One feels uprooted, because one asks, what lies ahead, what decisions should I make-but more alive, happier than those anchored in life. To drift with released anchor. — Albert Schweitzer

Example is leadership. — Albert Schweitzer

Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage. — Albert Schweitzer

I still remain convinced that truth, love, peaceableness, meekness, and kindness are the violence which can master all other violence. The world will be theirs as soon as ever a sufficient number of people with purity of heart, with strength, and with perseverance think and live out the thoughts of love and truth, of meekness and peaceableness. — Albert Schweitzer

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.' — Albert Schweitzer

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

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. — Albert Schweitzer

My life is my argument. — Albert Schweitzer

Bauer's 'Criticism of the Gospel History' is worth a good dozen Lives of Jesus, because his work, as we are only now coming to recognise, after half a century, is the ablest and most complete collection of the difficulties of the Life of Jesus which is anywhere to be found. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality. — Albert Schweitzer

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. — Albert Schweitzer

Very 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 Schweitzer

Love ... is a living reality. — Albert Schweitzer

Once a man recognizes himself as a being surrounded by other beings in this world and begins to respect his life and take it to the highest value, he becomes a thinking being. Then he values other lives and experiences them as part of his own life. With that, his goal is to help everyone take their life to the highest value; anything which limits or destroys a life is evil. That is morality. That is how men are related to the world around them. — Albert Schweitzer

I must forgive without noise or fuss. — Albert Schweitzer

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

Man has the lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end up destroying the earth. — Albert Schweitzer

We wander through this life together in a semi-darkness in which none of us can distinguish exactly the features of his neighbour. Only from time to time, through some experience that we have of our companion, or through some remark that he passes, he stands for a moment close to us, as though illuminated by a flash of lightning. Then we see him as he really is. — Albert Schweitzer

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

It doesn't matter if an animal can reason. It matters only that it is capable of suffering and that is why I consider it my neighbor. — Albert Schweitzer

The disastrous feature of our civilization is that it is far more developed materially than spiritually. Its balance is disturbed. — Albert Schweitzer

In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens - when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men's hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing. — Albert Schweitzer

I always think that we live, spiritually, By what others have given us in the significant hours of our life. These significant hours do not announce themselves as coming, but arrive unexpected. — Albert Schweitzer

The spirit of the age is filled with the disdain for thinking. — Albert Schweitzer

Love ... includes fellowship in suffering, in joy and in effort. — Albert Schweitzer

If people would wake that feeling of compassion within themselves, the suffering of others would affect them more often, and the desire to alleviate it, if not prevent it, would grow inside them. Then, the active involvement in the suffering of other beings would become the supreme life principle in everyday reasoning, feeling and the activity of individuals. — Albert Schweitzer

To the truly ethical man, all of life is sacred, including forms of life that from the human point of view may seem lower than ours. — Albert Schweitzer

The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others. — Albert Schweitzer

Be faithful to your love and you mill be recompensed beyond measure. — Albert Schweitzer

One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history. — Albert Schweitzer

The Full Measure of a man is not to be found in the man himself, but in the colors and textures that come alive in others because of him. — Albert Schweitzer

There can be no Kingdom of God in the world without the Kingdom of God in our hearts. — Albert Schweitzer

Set a great example. Someone may imitate it. — Albert Schweitzer

Cold completely introspective logic places a philosopher on the road to the abstract. Out of this empty, artificial act of thinking there can result, of course, nothing which bears on the relation of man to himself, and to the universe. — Albert Schweitzer

Ethics cannot be based upon our obligations toward people, but they are complete and natural only when we feel this Reverence for Life and the desire to have compassion for and to help all creatures insofar as it is in our power. I think that this ethic will become more and more recognized because of its great naturalness and because it is the foundation of a true humanism toward which we must strive if our culture is to become truly ethical. — Albert Schweitzer

Where possible Paul avoids quoting the teaching of Jesus, in fact even mentioning it. If we had to rely on Paul, we should not know that Jesus taught in parables, had delivered the sermon on the mount, and had taught His disciples the 'Our Father.' Even where they are specially relevant, Paul passes over the words of the Lord. — Albert Schweitzer

The mistake made by all previous systems of ethics has been the failure to recognize that life as such is the mysterious value with which they have to deal. All spiritual life meets us within natural life. Reverence for life, therefore, is applied to natural life and spiritual life alike. In the parable of Jesus, the shepherd saves not merely the soul of the lost sheep but the whole animal. The stronger the reverence for natural life, the stronger grows also that for spiritual life. — Albert Schweitzer

The result of the voyage does not depend on the speed of the ship, but on whether or not it keeps a true course. — Albert Schweitzer

The demands of Jesus are difficult because they require us to do something extraordinary. At the same time He asks us to regard these [acts of goodness] as something usual, ordinary. — Albert Schweitzer

The ethic of Reverence for Life prompts us to keep each other alert to what troubles us and to speak and act dauntlessly together in discharging the responsibility that we feel. It keeps us watching together for opportunities to bring some sort of help to animals in recompense for the great misery that men inflict upon them, and thus for a moment we escape from the incomprehensible horror of existence. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

I therefore used the last ten minutes of our classes to recite with them words from the Bible and verses from hymns, so that they would know them and the words would stay with them throughout their lives. The aim of my teaching was to bring to their hearts and thoughts the great truths of the Gospels so religion would have meaning in their lives and give them the strength to resist the irreligious forces that might assail them. I also tried to awaken in them a love for the Church, and a desire for that hour of spiritual peace to be found in the Sunday service. I taught them to respect traditional doctrines, but at the same time to hold fast to the saying of Paul that where the spirit of Christ is, there is freedom. — Albert Schweitzer

The interior joy we feel when we have done a good deed is the nourishment the soul requires. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

Kindness works simply and perseveringly; it produces no strained relations which prejudice its working; strained relations which already exist it relaxes. Mistrust and misunderstanding it puts to flight, and it strengthens itself by calling forth answering kindness. Hence it is the furthest reaching and the most effective of all forces. — Albert Schweitzer

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 — Albert Schweitzer

Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy. — Albert Schweitzer

Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile. — Albert Schweitzer

The harvested fields bathed in the autumn mist speak of God and his goodness far more vividly than any human lips. — Albert Schweitzer

A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives. — Albert Schweitzer

World-view is a product of life-view, not vice versa. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

It is not difficult to pretend that Jesus never lived. The attempt to prove it, however, invariably produces the opposite conclusion. In the Jewish literature of the first century the existence of Jesus is not attested to with any certainty, and in the Greek and Latin literature of the same period there is no evidence for it at all. Of the two passages in his Antiquities in which the Jewish writer Josephus makes incidental mention of Jesus, one was undoubtedly interpolated by Christian copyists. The first pagan witness to His existence is Tacitus, who, during the reign of Trajan in the second decade of the second century A.D., reports in his Annals (XV.44) that the founder of the "Christian" sect (which Nero accused of causing the great fire at Rome) was executed under the government of Tiberius by the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Since — Albert Schweitzer

Just as white light consists of colored rays, so reverence for life contains all the components of ethics: love, kindliness, sympathy, empathy, peacefulness and power to forgive. — Albert Schweitzer

Thought is the strongest thing we have. — Albert Schweitzer

The fundamental rights of [humanity] are, first: the right of habitation; second, the right to move freely; third, the right to the soil and subsoil, and to the use of it; fourth, the right of freedom of labor and of exchange; fifth, the right to justice; sixth, the right to live within a natural national organization; and seventh, the right to education. — Albert Schweitzer

A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint. — Albert Schweitzer

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

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

When people have light in themselves, it will shine out from them. Then we get to know each other as we walk together in the darkness, without needing to pass our hands over each other's faces, or to intrude into each other's hearts. — Albert Schweitzer

A heavy guilt rests upon us for what the whites of all nations have done to the colored peoples. When we do good to them, it is not benevolence
it is atonement. — Albert Schweitzer

Mysticism occurs whenever a human being sees the separation between the natural and the supernatural, between the temporal and the eternal, as overcome. — Albert Schweitzer

Reverence for life ... does not allow the scholar to live for his science alone, even if he is very useful ... the artist to exist only for his art, even if he gives inspiration to many ... It refuses to let the business man imagine that he fulfills all legitimate demands in the course of his business activities. It demands from all that they should sacrifice a portion of their own lives for others. — Albert Schweitzer

Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed. — Albert Schweitzer

Late upon the third day, at the very moment when, at sunset ... there flashed upon my mind, unforseen and unsought, the phrase 'Reverence for Life'. — Albert Schweitzer

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

The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer