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
difficult ethic love task
To think out in every implication the ethic of love for all creation... this is the difficult task which confronts our age.
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Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.
reverence-for-life ethics morality
Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.
spirituality ethical existence
Ethical existence [is] the highest manifestation of spirituality.
life ethics reverence
The ethic of Reverence for Life is the ethic of Love widened into universality.
men ethics consciousness
Man's ethics must not end with man, but should extend to the universe. He must regain the consciousness of the great Chain of Life from which he cannot be separated.
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The human spirit is not dead. It lives on in secret... It has come to believed that 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.-
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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
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Truth has not special time of its own. Its hour is now—always and indeed then most truly when it seems unsuitable to actual circumstances.
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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.
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Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.
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Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives.
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What really matters is that we should all of us realize that we are guilty of inhumanity. The horror of this realization should shakes us out of our lethargy so that we can direct our hopes and our intentions to the coming of an era in which war will have no place.
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Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.