Albert Schweitzer Quotes

When Christianity becomes conscious of its innermost nature, it realizes that it is godliness rising our of inward constraint. The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery. Neither knowledge nor hope for the future can be the pivot of our life or determine its direction. It is intended to be solely determined by our allowing ourselves to be gripped by the ethical God, who reveals Himself in us, and by our yielding our will to His.

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

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

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

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

„Ich bin Leben, das leben will, inmitten von Leben, das leben will.

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.

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.

Wer unter uns durch das, was er erlebt hat, wissend geworden ist über Schmerz und Angst, muß mithelfen, daß denen draußen in leiblicher Not Hilfe zuteil werde, wie sie ihm widerfuhr. Er gehört nicht mehr ganz sich selber an, sondern ist Bruder all derer geworden, die leiden. (Aus meinem Leben und Denken, S. 145)

As we know life in ourselves we want to understand life in the universe in order to enter into harmony with it.

There are two means of refuge from the misery of life — music and cats.

The last fact which knowledge can discover is that the world is a manifestation, and in every way a puzzling manifestation, of the universal will to live.

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

Only at quite rare moments have I felt really glad to be alive. I could not but feel with a sympathy full of regret all the pain that I saw around me, not only that of men but that of the whole creation. From this community of suffering I have never tried to withdraw myself. 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.

By itself the affirmation of life can only produce a partial and imperfect civilization. Only if it turns inward and becomes ethical can the will to progress attain the ability to distinguish the valuable from the worthless. We must therefore strive for a civilization that is not based on the accretion of science and power alone, but which cares most of all for the spiritual and ethical development of the individual and of humankind.