Schweitzer Quotes & Sayings

As we acquire knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious. — Albert Schweitzer

The destiny of man is to be more and more human. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

Soldiers' graves are the greatest preachers of peace. — 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

The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are. Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not. — Albert Schweitzer

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 — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

Schweitzer in the Congo did not derive more moral credit than Larkin did for living in Hull. — Alan Bennett

The generosity of Montanans is inspiring. — Brian Schweitzer

The gratitude that we encounter helps us believe in the goodness of the world, and strengthens us thereby to do what's good. — Albert Schweitzer

Reverence for life brings us into a spiritual relation with the world which is independent of all knowledge of the universe. — Albert Schweitzer

The only ones who will find real happiness are those who find a way to serve — 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

What has been presented as Christianity during these nineteen centuries is only a beginning, full of mistakes, not full blown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus. — 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 seemed to me a matter of course that we should all take our share of the burden of pain which lies upon the world. — Albert Schweitzer

The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature. — Albert Schweitzer

Aim for service and success will follow! — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

We are compelled by the commandment of love contained in our hearts and thought, and proclaimed by Jesus, to give rein to our natural sympathy for animals. We are also compelled to help them and spare them suffering. — Albert Schweitzer

Those who experiment on animals should never be able to quiet their own conscience by telling themselves that these cruelties have a worthy aim. — Albert Schweitzer

My most firmly held value is what Albert Schweitzer termed 'reverence for life.' I take this seriously; many would say that because I extend it to nonhumans, I take it too far. — Victoria Moran

That we need help is easy to see every time we walk down the street.
The experts confirm what the obscured view in front of us tells us.
They estimate that 64% of adults in the United States are obese and
that this percentage is growing. Even our children are being affected,
as nearly every one in three American children under the age of 18
is overweight. — Jeff Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives. — Albert Schweitzer

There are only three ways to teach a child. The first is by example, the second is by example, the third is by example. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it - a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals. — 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

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

We all know how important love is, yet how often is it really emoted or exhibited? What so many sick people in this world suffer from-loneliness, boredom and fear-can't be cured with a pill. — Albert Schweitzer

Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life it is bad to damage and destroy life. — Albert Schweitzer

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. — 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

If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life. — Albert Schweitzer

A good example has twice the value of good advice — Albert Schweitzer

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. — Albert Schweitzer

If you love something so much let it go. If it comes back it was meant to be; if it doesn't it never was — 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

I'm like Albert Schweitzer and Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein in that I have a respect for life - in any form. I believe in nature, in the birds, the sea, the sky, in everything I can see or that there is real evidence for. If these things are what you mean by God, then I believe in God. — Frank Sinatra

Only those who respect the personality of others can be of real use to them. — Albert Schweitzer

We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace. — Albert Schweitzer

I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words. — Albert Schweitzer

Jesus no doubt fits his teaching into the late-Jewish messianic dogma. But he does not think dogmatically. He formulates no doctrine. He is far from judging any man's belief by reference to any standard of dogmatic correctness. Nowhere does he demand of his hearers that they shall sacrifice thinking to believing. — Albert Schweitzer

Today it is considered as exaggeration to proclaim constant respect for every form of life as being the serious demand of a rational ethic. But the time is coming when people will be amazed that the human race existed so long before it recognized that thoughtless injury to life is incompatible with real ethics. Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility to everything that has life. — Albert Schweitzer

When your heart speaks to you about what you need to do to sustain life on this planet, listen to it, make a difference, and be an inspiration for generations to come. Be inspired by people like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Christopher Reeve, Albert Schweitzer, Helen Keller, and many others. — Bernie Siegel

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

Some scientific specialists do not believe in parallel worlds; however many do endorse a multi-dimensinal multiverse with no planetary equivalents to Earth. — S. Alan Schweitzer

Let us rejoice in the truth, wherever we find its lamp burning. — 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

To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will-to-life. At the same time the man who has become a thinking being feels a compulsion to give every will-to-live the same reverence for life that he gives to his own. He experiences that other life as his own. He accepts as being good: to preserve life, to raise to its highest value life which is capable of development; and as being evil: to destroy life, to injure life, to repress life which is capable of development. This is the absolute, fundamental principle of the moral, and it is a necessity of thought. — Albert Schweitzer

No, money is power. — Brian Schweitzer

Animal protection is education to the humanity. — Albert Schweitzer

Help me to fling my life like a flaming firebrand into the gathering darkness of the world. — 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

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. — Albert Schweitzer

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

I have given up the ambition to be a great scholar. I want to be more- simply a human ... We are not true humans, but beings who live by a civilization inherited from the past, that keeps us hostage, that confines us. No freedom of movement. Nothing. Everything in us is killed by our calculations for our future, by our social position and cast. You see, I am not happy-yet I am happy. I suffer, but that is part of life. I live, I don't care about my existence, and that is the beginning of wisdom. — 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

Albert Schweitzer, a century or more ago, used another strong image. Jesus, he said, was like a man convinced the wheel of history was going to turn in the opposite direction. He waited for this to happen, but it didn't. Then he threw himself upon the wheel, and it crushed him - but it did indeed start to turn in the other direction. — N. T. Wright

If acts of service do not come naturally for you, it is still a love language worth acquiring. It is a way of expressing a sense of responsibility for the well-being of others. Albert Schweitzer said repeatedly " As long as there is a man in the world who is hungry, sick, lonely or living in fear, he is my responsibility." Helping others is universally accepted as an expression of love. — Gary Chapman

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

The thinking (person) must oppose all cruel customs, no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another. — Albert Schweitzer

Your soul suffers if you live superficially. — Albert Schweitzer

He who does not reflect his life back to God in gratitude does not know himself. — Albert Schweitzer

The most difficult thing I have ever had to do is follow the guidance I prayed for. — Albert Schweitzer

No one can give a definition of the soul. But we know what it feels like. The soul is the sense of something higher than ourselves, something that stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspirations which go out to the world of goodness, truth and beauty. The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it
to remain children of light. — Albert Schweitzer

If there is anything I have learned about men and women, it is that there is a deeper spirit of altruism than is ever evident. Just as the rivers we see are minor compared to the underground streams, so, too, the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what people carry in their hearts unreleased or scarcely released. — Albert Schweitzer

No one may shut his eyes to think the pain, which is therefore not visible to him, is non-existent. — Albert Schweitzer

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

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

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 — 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

No ray of sunlight is ever lost, but the green which it awakes into existence needs time to sprout, and it is not always granted to the sower to see the harvest. All work that is worth anything is done in faith. — 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

Man has become a superman ... because he not only disposes oinnate, physical forces, but because he is in command ... olatent forces in nature and because he can put them to his service ... But the essential fact we must surely all feel in our hearts ... is that we are becoming inhuman in proportion as we become supermen. — Albert Schweitzer

To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude. — Albert Schweitzer

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it. — Albert Schweitzer

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier. — 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 big guys, the big dogs, are going to own everything from the White House to the courthouse. — Brian Schweitzer

Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation. — Albert Schweitzer

If I stay in Washington for more than 72 hours, I have to bathe myself in the same stuff I use when my dog gets into a fight with a skunk. — Brian Schweitzer

It is the fate of every truth to be an object of ridicule when it is first acclaimed. — Albert Schweitzer

We must never allow the voice of humanity within us to be silenced. It is humanity's sympathy with all creatures that first makes us truly human. — Albert Schweitzer

We need to work our level best in this legislative session to help grow Montana's economy, so that grandchildren can stay in Montana, grandchildren can visit their grandmother and grandfather by driving across town, not flying across the country. — Brian Schweitzer

If you are called upon to play a church service, it is a greater honor than if you were to play a concert on the finest organ in the world ... Thank God each time when you are privileged to sit before the organ console and assist in the worship of the Almighty. — Albert Schweitzer

The ethics of reverence for life makes no distinction between higher and lower, more precious and less precious lives. It has good reasons for this omission. For what are we doing, when we establish hard and fast gradations in value between living organisms, but judging them in relation to ourselves, by whether they seem to stand closer to us or farther from us. This is a wholly subjective standard. How can we know what importance other living organisms have in themselves and in terms of the universe? — Albert Schweitzer

I am Plato's Republic. Mr. Simmons is Marcus. I want you to meet Jonathan Swift, the author of that evil political book, Gulliver's Travels! And this other fellow is Charles Darwin, and-this one is Schopenhauer, and this one is Einstein, and this one here at my elbow is Mr. Albert Schweitzer, a very kind philosopher indeed. Here we all are, Montag. Aristophanes and Mahatma Gandhi and Gautama Buddha and Confucius and Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Lincoln, if you please. We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. — Ray Bradbury

Open your eyes and look for some man, or some work for the sake of men, which needs a little time, a little friendship, a little sympathy, a little sociability, a little human toil ... It is needed in every nook and corner. Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity. — Albert Schweitzer

The gratitude ascending from man to God is the supreme transaction between heaven and earth. — Albert Schweitzer