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
philosophical animal thinking
Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.
philosophical animal needs
We need a boundless ethics which will include animals also.
nature philosophical animal
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.
philosophical animal men
To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will-to-life. At the same time the man who has become a thinking being feels a compulsion to give every will-to-live the same reverence for life that he gives to his own. He experiences that other life as his own. He accepts as being good: to preserve life, to raise to its highest value life which is capable of development; and as being evil: to destroy life, to injure life, to repress life which is capable of development. This is the absolute, fundamental principle of the moral, and it is a necessity of thought.
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.
answer hoping knowledge optimistic pessimist question whether willing
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
actual hour indeed seems special time truly truth unsuitable
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.
kindness freedom compassion
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.
fun clever men
Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.
cat animal vegetarianism
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.
war realization matter
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.
sacrifice humanity being-sad
Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.
time special hours
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.
helping-others volunteer needs
Even if it is a little thing, do something for those who have need of help.