Quotes By Albert Schweitzer

A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

Serious illness doesn't bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.

One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history.

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.

The African is my brother but he is my younger brother by several centuries.

Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed.

The highest proof of the spirit is love. Love the eternal thing which can already on earth possess as it really is.

Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal.

The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always.

A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.

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

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.

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.

Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.

Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

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

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

By respect for life we become religious in a way that is elementary, profound and alive.

Example is leadership.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

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 will have sought and found how to serve.

The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.

Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.