Albert Schweitzer Quotes

I do not believe that we can put into anyone ideas which are not in him
already. As a rule there is 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 the outside,
from some other person. Often, too, our own light goes out, and is
rekindled by some experience we go through with a fellow man. Thus we
have each of us cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have
lighted the flame within us. If we had before us those who have thus
been a blessing to us, and could tell them how it came about, they would
be amazed to learn what passed over from their life to ours.

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 fundamental principle of morality which we seek as a necessity for thought is not, however, a matter only of arranging and deepening current views of good and evil, but also of expanding and extending these. A man is really ethical only when he obeys the constraint laid on him to help all life which he is able to succour, and when he goes out of his way to avoid injuring anything living. He does not ask how far this or that life deserves sympathy as valuable in itself, nor how far it is capable of feeling. To him life as such is sacred. He shatters no ice crystal that sparkles in the sun, tears no leaf from its tree, breaks off no flower, and is careful not to crush any insect as he walks. If he works by lamplight on a summer evening, he prefers to keep the window shut and to breathe stifling air, rather than to see insect after insect fall on his table with singed and sinking wings.

In the past we have tried to make a distinction between animals which we acknowledge have some value and other which, having none, can be liquidated when we wish. This standard must be abandoned. Everything that lives has value simply as a living thing, as one of the manifestations of the mystery that is life.

هناك شيئان يبعثان على السلوان ويخففان على الإنسان مصائب الحياة: الموسيقى والقطط

It will always remain incomprehensible that our generation, which has shown itself so great by its discoveries and inventions, could fall so low in the realms of thought.

Gutes tun will überlegt und gelernt sein.

مأساة الحياة هي ما يموت داخل المرء أثناء حياته.

I do not know our destinies, but one thing I know, the only ones among you who will be happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

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

I have given up the ambition to become a great scholar, I want to be more — simply a human.

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

A word in conclusion about the relations between the whites and blacks. What must be the general character of the intercourse between them? Am I to treat the black man as my equal or my inferior? I must show him that I can respect the dignity of human personality in every one, and this attitude in me he must be able to see for himself; but the essential thing is that there shall be a real feeling of brotherliness. How far this is to find complete expression in the sayings and doings of daily life must be settled by circumstances. The negro is a child, and with children nothing can be done without the use of authority. We must, therefore, so arrange the circumstances of daily life that my natural authority can find expression. With regard to the negroes, then, I have coined the formula: "I am your brother, it is true, but your elder brother."

Mit drei Gegnern hat sich die Ethik auseinanderzusetzen: mit der Gedankenlosigkeit, mit der egoistischen Selbstbehauptung und mit der Gesellschaft.

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