Albert Schweitzer

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.

By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive.

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.

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.

Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal.

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.

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

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

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.

Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.

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.

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.

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

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.

The true worth of a man is not to be found in man himself, but in the colours and textures that come alive in others.

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

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.

A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.

My life is my argument.

Do something for somebody everyday for which you do not get paid.

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.

Whoever is spared personal pain must feel himself called to help in diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry our share of the misery which lies upon the world.

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

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.

I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words.

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

If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

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.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

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

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight... the truly wise person is colorblind.

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

Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

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

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.

The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.

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