Albert Schweitzer Quotes
|
|
|
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
|
|
|
|
There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
[Music]
|
|
|
|
Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.
|
|
|
|
This meaning lies in my living out the highest idea which shows itself in my will-to-live, the idea of reverence for life. With that for a starting-point I give value to my own life and to all the will-to-live which surrounds me, I persevere in activity, and I produce values.
|
|
|
|
Thought is the strongest thing we have. Work done by true and profound thought - that is a real force.
[Thinking]
|
|
|
|
To affirm life is to deepen, and to exalt the will to live.
|
|
|
|
To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.
|
|
|
|
True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness: "I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live."
|
|
|
|
Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always.
|
|
|
|
Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
[Peace]
|
|
|
|
We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.
|
|
|
|
We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.
|
|
|
|
We must all die. But that I can save him from days of torture, that is what I feel as my great and ever new privilege.
|
|
|
|
We wander through this life together in a semi-darkness in which none of us can distinguish exactly the features of his neighbour. Only from time to time, through some experience that we have of our companion, or through some remark that he passes, he stands for a moment close to us, as though illuminated by a flash of lightning. Then we see him as he really is.
[Human Relations]
|
|
|
|
What has been presented as Christianity during these nineteen centuries is only a beginning, full of mistakes, not full blown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus.
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
World-view is a product of life-view, not vice versa.
|
|
|
|
You don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here, too.
|
|
|
|
|