Awakening of Western thought will not be complete until that thought steps outside itself and comes to an understanding with the search for a world-v… - Albert Schweitzer

Това е съдбата на всяка истина - да бъде обект на присмех, когато за пръв път е изказана. Някога се е смятало за смешно да се предположи, че чернокожите са наистина човешки същества и че би трябвало да се третират като такива. Това, което някога е било смешно, сега е неопровержима истина. Днес се смята за преувеличение да се прокламира постоянно уважение към всяка форма на живот като сериозно изискване на рационалната етика. Но идва времето, когато хората ще бъдат удивени, че човешката раса е съществувала толкова дълго преди да осъзнае, че неразумното посягане на живота е несъвместимо с истинския морал. Моралът в своята абсолютна форма обхваща отговорността към всичко живо.

A man is really ethical only when he obeys the constraint laid on him to help all life which he is able to succor, 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. If he goes out in to the street after a rainstorm and sees a worm which has strayed there, he reflects that it will certainly dry up in the sunshine, if it does not quickly regain the damp soil into which it can creep, and so he helps it back from the deadly paving stones into the lush grass. Should he pass by an insect which has fallen into a pool, he spares the time to reach it a leaf or stalk on which it may clamber and save itself.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is
the key to success.