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Albert Schweitzer Quotes - Page 11

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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

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
Life, Attitude, Men
Albert Schweitzer (2005). “Albert Schweitzer: Essential Writings”

Your soul suffers if you live superficially.

Albert Schweitzer
Soul, Suffering, Your Soul
Albert Schweitzer (1979). “Reverence for Life”, p.80, Ardent Media

I do not believe that we can put into anyone ideas which are not in him already. As a rule there are in everyone all sorts of good ideas, ready like tinder. But much of this tinder catches fire, or catches it successfully, only when it meets some flame or spark from outside, i.e., from some other person.

Albert Schweitzer
Believe, Fire, Flames
Albert Schweitzer (2015). “The Light Within Us”, p.13, Open Road Media

We need a boundless ethics which will include animals also.

Albert Schweitzer
Philosophical, Animal, Needs

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.

Albert Schweitzer
Dark, Medicine, Political

Love ... is a living reality.

Albert Schweitzer
Life, Reality, Love Is

I am life which wants to live admidst of lives that want to live.

Albert Schweitzer
Want
"Reverence for Life". Book by Albert Schweitzer, 1969.

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

Albert Schweitzer
Men, Thinking, Pet
Albert Schweitzer (2014). “Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century”, p.38, Open Road Media

O heavenly Father, protect and bless all things that have breath: guard them from all evil and let them sleep in peace.

Albert Schweitzer
Father, Sleep, Evil
Albert Schweitzer (2014). “A Treasury of Albert Schweitzer”, p.7, Open Road Media

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
Respect, Real, Responsibility
"Philosophy of Civilisation". Book by Albert Schweitzer (1923), translated by C. T. Campion, 1949.

When we observe contemporary society one thing strikes us. We debate but make no progress. Why? Because as peoples we do not yet trust each other.

Albert Schweitzer
Progress, Debate, Strikes
Albert Schweitzer (1984). “The Words of Albert Schweitzer”

Creative energy is the essence of all healing...We physicians do nothing, we only help and encourage the physician within.

Albert Schweitzer
Healing, Essence, Creative

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.

Albert Schweitzer
Volunteer, Parent, Support

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

Albert Schweitzer
Spiritual, Independent, World
Albert Schweitzer (1956). “An anthology”

Therapy is the boat across the river, but most don't want to get off. Don't blame, forgive, All healing is self-healing

Albert Schweitzer
Leadership, Sports, Healing

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?

Albert Schweitzer
Light, Long, Shining
Albert Schweitzer (1979). “Reverence for Life”, p.40, Ardent Media

Never for a moment do we lay aside our mistrust of the ideals established by society, and of the convictions which are kept by it in circulation. We always know that society is full of folly and will deceive us in the matter of humanity. ... humanity meaning consideration for the existence and the happiness of individual human beings.

Albert Schweitzer
Humanity, Matter, Moments
"Kulturphilosophie". Book by Albert Schweitzer. Translated by C. T. Campion as "Philosophy of Civilisation" (1949) Chapter 26, 1923.

Ideals are thoughts. So long as they exist merely as thoughts, the power in them remains ineffective.

Albert Schweitzer
Long, Philanthropy, Activism
Albert Schweitzer (2014). “A Treasury of Albert Schweitzer”, p.61, Open Road Media

We cannot understand what happens in the universe. What is glorious in it is united with what is full of horror. What is full of meaning is united to what is senseless. The spirit of the universe is at once creative and destructive — it creates while it destroys and destroys while it creates, and therefore it remains to us a riddle. And we must inevitably resign ourselves to this.

Albert Schweitzer
Creative, Spirit, Horror
Albert Schweitzer (2009). “Albert Schweitzer's Ethical Vision: A Sourcebook”, p.81, Oxford University Press

The ethic of Reverence for Life is the ethic of Love widened into universality.

Albert Schweitzer
Life, Ethics, Reverence
Albert Schweitzer (2014). “Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography”, p.237, Henry Holt and Company

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
Prayer, Men, Battle

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
Birthday, Truth, Men
Albert Schweitzer (2015). “The Light Within Us”, p.18, Open Road Media

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

Albert Schweitzer
Friendship, Religious, Dog

Truth has not special time of its own. Its hour is now - always and, indeed then most truly, when it seems unsuitable to actual circumstances.

Albert Schweitzer
Time, Truth, Special
'Zwischen Wasser und Urwald' (On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, 1922) ch. 11

A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.

Albert Schweitzer
Inspirational, Valentines Day, Perseverance

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