Quotessence
Home / Authors / Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer Quotes

Theologian

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenWorldAnimalIfsLifeReverence For LifeEthicsHelpingReverenceThinkingSpiritGivingWayLife IsSpiritualHumanityHumansKnowsPeopleCompassion

Famous Albert Schweitzer Quotes

“True resignation consists of this: that man, feeling his subordination to the course of world events, makes his way toward inward freedom from the fate that shapes his external existence. Inward freedom gives him the strength to triumph over the difficulties of everyday life and to become a deeper and more inward person, calm, and peaceful. Resignation, therefore, is the spiritual and ethical affirmation of one’s own existence. Only he that has gone through the trial of resignation is capable of accepting the world.”

LifePhilosophyEthicsMorals
Book:Reverence for Life: The Words of Albert Schweitzer
Create image

“What the activity of this disposition of ours means in the evolution of the world, we do not know. Nor can we regulate this activity from outside; we must leave entirely to each individual its shaping and its extension. From every point of view, then, world- and life-affirmation and ethics are non-rational, and we must have the courage to admit it.”

KnowsWorldMeanIndividualViewsEvolutionActivityEthicsPoint Of ViewRationalDispositionAffirmationExtensionsWorld And Life
Book:Civilization and Ethics
Create image

“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.”

MenFeelsMomentsHelpingTogetherOpportunitySpeakAnimalExistenceResponsibilityTroubleHorrorEthicsMiseryReverencePromptsReverence For LifeRecompense
Author:Albert Schweitzer
Create image

“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.”

IfsDoeFreedomAnimalCompassionKindnessMankindCreaturesLimitsEthicsRootsEmbraceDepthCrueltyVegetarianVeganAnimal RightsAnimal WelfareAnimal CrueltyLiving CreaturesAnimal LoveLove And CompassionBreadthKindness And CompassionHuman AnimalAnimal WorldSentient BeingsHumans And AnimalsPet AnimalsAnimal LifeAnimal CompassionThinking ManAnimal EthicsCruel WorldAnimal TestingAnimals In NatureNature And AnimalsCompassion For YourselfSmall CreaturesRespect LifeHuman Beings And Animals
Book:A Selection of Writings of and about Albert Schweitzer
Create image

“The thinking (person) must oppose all cruel customs, no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another.”

ThinkingPersonsMatterChoicesNatureAnimalEthicsTraditionPhilosophicalInjuryCustomsVegetarianVeganAnimal RightsRootedTormentVegetarianismVegetarian HealthAnimal WorldAnimal LifeHalosThinking ManVegan HealthAnimals In NatureMoral EthicsNature And AnimalsThinking Person
Author:Albert Schweitzer
Create image

“Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.”

GivingEvilPrinciplesInspirational LifeMoralityIntegrityEthicsGive MeSocial JusticeFundamentalsPatriotismDestroyingReverenceMaintainingPromotingDissentMoral ValuesMoral PrinciplesFundamental PrinciplesReverence For LifeGood MoralMoral EthicsMorality And Ethics
Book:Civilization and ethics. 3d. ed
Create image

“Today it is considered as exaggeration to proclaim constant respect for every form of life as being the serious demand of a rational ethic. But the time is coming when people will be amazed that the human race existed so long before it recognized that thoughtless injury to life is incompatible with real ethics. Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility to everything that has life.”

PeopleHumansLongRealTodayFormLife IsRaceResponsibilitySeriousDemandRespectEthicsConstantRationalHuman RaceInjuryAnimal RightsAmazedVegetarianismExaggerationVegetarian HealthUnqualifiedAnimal EthicsRespect Life
Author:Albert Schweitzer
Create image

“Ethics cannot be based upon our obligations toward people, but they are complete and natural only when we feel this Reverence for Life and the desire to have compassion for and to help all creatures insofar as it is in our power. I think that this ethic will become more and more recognized because of its great naturalness and because it is the foundation of a true humanism toward which we must strive if our culture is to become truly ethical.”

PeopleIfsThinkingLifeFeelsHelpingDesireCultureNaturalCompassionInspirational LifeCreaturesEthicsFoundationStriveHumanismObligationEthicalInsightfulReverenceReverence For Life
Author:Albert Schweitzer
Create image

“Thought cannot avoid the ethical or reverence and love for all life. It will abandon the old confined systems of ethics and be forced to recognize the ethics that knows no bounds. But on the other hand, those who believe in love for all creation must realize clearly the difficulties involved in the problem of a boundless ethic and must be resolved not to veil from humankind the conflicts which this ethic will involve us, but allow us really to experience them. To think out in every implication the ethic of love for all creation this is the difficult task which confronts our age.”

ThinkingKnowsBelieveProblemHandsAgeDifficultRealizingCreationInvolvedConflictEthicsTasksAnd LoveDifficultyBoundsAbandonEthicalInspirational LoveReverenceHumankindVeilsConfinedImplicationsBoundlessBelieve In LoveDifficult Tasks
Author:Albert Schweitzer
Create image

“Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it - a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.”

MindEndsCharacterWinningIndividualNumbersExistenceInfluenceMovementIntegrityCivilizationEthicsIndependentDetermineCrowdsToneOppositionCollectivesEthicalRescueBarbarismReviveIntegrity And CharacterIntegrity Character
Book:A Treasury of Albert Schweitzer
Create image

“The mistake made by all previous systems of ethics has been the failure to recognize that life as such is the mysterious value with which they have to deal. All spiritual life meets us within natural life. Reverence for life, therefore, is applied to natural life and spiritual life alike. In the parable of Jesus, the shepherd saves not merely the soul of the lost sheep but the whole animal. The stronger the reverence for natural life, the stronger grows also that for spiritual life.”

LifeHas BeensMadeSoulWholeSpiritualValuesJesusLostStrongGrowsNaturalAnimalDealsMistakeStrengthEthicsStrongerMysteriousReverenceSpiritual LifeSheepShepherdsParablesReverence For LifeNatural Life
Book:Albert Schweitzer: An Anthology
Create image

“The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo. We need a boundless ethics which will include the animals also. My life is full of meaning to me. The life around me must be full of significance to it. If I want others to respect my life, then I must respect the other life I see however strange it may be to mine. Ethics in our western world has hitherto been largely limited to the relation of man to man... but that is a limited ethics.”

IfsThinkingMenWorldWantNeedsMayMatterLife IsAnimalMinesStrangeEthicsTraditionRelationWesternSignificanceCustomsAnimal RightsRootedBoundlessWestern WorldHalosThinking Man
Author:Albert Schweitzer
Create image

“Ethics has not only to do with mankind but with the animal creation as well. This is witnessed in the purpose of St. Francis of Assisi. Thus we shall arrive that ethics is reverence for all life. This is the ethic of love widened universally. It is the ethic of Jesus now recognized as a necessity of thought...Only a universal ethic which embraces every living creature can put us in touch with the universe and the will which is there manifest.”

WellsPurposeUniverseJesusAnimalMankindCreationCreaturesEthicsUniversalEmbraceVegetarianManifestReverenceVegetarianismLiving CreaturesSt Francis Of Assisi
Author:Albert Schweitzer
Create image