Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer, OMwas a French-German theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician. He was born in the province of Alsace-Lorraine and although that region had been annexed by the German Empire four years earlier, and remained a German possession until 1918, he considered himself French and wrote mostly in French...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionDoctor
Date of Birth14 January 1875
CityKaysersberg, France
CountryGermany
jesus heart animal
We are compelled by the commandment of love contained in our hearts and thought, and proclaimed by Jesus, to give rein to our natural sympathy for animals. We are also compelled to help them and spare them suffering.
light long shining
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?
life sunset mind
Late upon the third day, at the very moment when, at sunset . . . there flashed upon my mind, unforseen and unsought, the phrase 'Reverence for Life'.
men united
We are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live his life for himself alone.
achievement reverence-for-life direct
Reverence for life, veneratio vitæ, is the most direct and at the same time the profoundest achievement of my will-to-live.
mind institutions function
Only when an ideal of peace is born in the minds of the peoples will the institutions set up to maintain this peace effectively fulfill the function expected of them.
civilization movement ethical
Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.
disappointment heart waiting
Do not lose heart, even if you must wait a bit before finding the right thing. Be prepared for disappointment also, but do not abandon the quest.
community-service helping public-service
There is no higher religion than human service.
people understanding important
I look back upon my youth and realize how so many people gave me help, understanding, courage - very important things to me - and they never knew it. They entered into my life and became powers within me.
may made wells
We all owe to others much of the gentleness and wisdom that we have made our own; and we may well ask ourselves what will others owe to us
struggle fate guilty
In resigning ourselves to our fate without a struggle, we are guilty of inhumanity.
responsibility animal opportunity
The ethic of Reverence for Life prompts us to keep each other alert to what troubles us and to speak and act dauntlessly together in discharging the responsibility that we feel. It keeps us watching together for opportunities to bring some sort of help to animals in recompense for the great misery that men inflict upon them, and thus for a moment we escape from the incomprehensible horror of existence.
views world vices
World-view is a product of life-view, not vice versa.