Albert Schweitzer famous quotes

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Love #Inspirational #Motivational

Good is that which promotes life, evil is that which destroys life
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Evil

If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Successful #Doing You #Being Successful

Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Respect #Philosophy #Life Is

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Life #Grief #Bad Ass

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

#Motivational #Happiness #Helping Others

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Inspirational #Fun #Kindness

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

#Inspirational #Life #Wise

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Inspirational #Motivational #Friendship

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Religious #Jesus #Twilight

The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Inspirational #Helping Others #Compassion

The gratitude that we encounter helps us believe in the goodness of the world, and strengthens us thereby to do what's good.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Gratitude #Believe #Encounters

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

#Appreciation #Responsibility #Helping Others

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Philosophical #Animal #Thinking

We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Fighting #Compassion #Animal

Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Giving #May #Littles

Reverence for life brings us into a spiritual relation with the world which is independent of all knowledge of the universe.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Spiritual #Independent #World

My life is my argument.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Argument #Life Is

In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens - when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men's hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Peace #Heart #Men

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Men #Sacred #Ethics

Only those who respect the personality of others can be of real use to them.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Respect #Real #Personality

By ethical conduct toward all creatures, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the universe.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Spiritual #Animal #Humanity

Don't let your hearts grow numb. Stay alert. It is your soul which matters.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Heart #Soul #Matter

We ought all to make an effort to act on our first thoughts and let our unspoken gratitude find expression. Then there will be more sunshine in the world, and more power to work for what is good.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Gratitude #Sunshine #Expression

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Compassion #Foundation #Ethics

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Beautiful #Tree #World

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Inspirational #Life #Beach

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Nature #Philosophical #Animal

Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter -- to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way, as if we were sitting by a mountain lake and contemplating hills and woods and clouds in the tranquil and fathomless water.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Music #Laughter #Reality

Seek always to do some good, somewhere... Even if it's a little thing, so something for those that need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Needs #Littles #Pay

Man can no longer live for himself alone. We must realize that all life is valuable and that we are united to all life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship with the universe.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Inspirational #Spiritual #Men

The elemental fact, present in our consciousness every moment of our existence, is: I am life that wills to live, in the midst of life that wills to live.... The essence of the humane spirit is: Preserve life, promote life, help life to achieve its highest destiny. The essence of Evil is: Destroy life, harm life, hamper the development of life
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Cute #Destiny #Essence

In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Inspirational #Success #Appreciation

He who does not reflect his life back to God in gratitude does not know himself.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Gratitude #Grateful #Doe

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Inspirational Life #Thinking #Compassion

For animals that are overworked, underfed, and cruelly treated; for all wistful creatures in captivity that beat their wings against bars; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death...and for those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Heart #Compassion #Animal

The doctor of the future will be oneself.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Doctors #Oneself

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#War #Realization #Matter

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

#Loyalty #Peace #Firsts

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Love #Life #Peace

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

#Brother #My Brother #Century

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Life #Death #Men

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Inspirational #Valentines Day #Perseverance

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Men #Texture #Alive

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Life #Character #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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Wise #Wisdom #Attitude

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Freedom #Kindness #Compassion

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Leadership #Men #Able

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

#Integrity #Angel #Men

Example is leadership.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Leadership #Learning #Growth

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
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Life #Philosophy #Facts

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

#Cheating #Taken #Sunday

We need a boundless ethics which will include animals also.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Philosophical #Animal #Needs

Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live unreflectively and begins to devote himself to his life with reverence in order to raise it to its true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Life #Spiritual #Men

The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Inspirational #Spiritual #Nature

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Integrity #Inspirational Life #Evil

There can be no Kingdom of God in the world without the Kingdom of God in our hearts.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#God #Heart #World

You don't live in a world all alone. Your brothers are here too.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Brother #World #All Alone

Every patient carries his or her own doctor inside.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Health #Doctors #Patient

Hear our humble prayer, O God. Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to the animals.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Dog #Religious #Prayer

Let your life be your argument.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Basketball #Argument #Life Is

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Cat #Ideas #Arriving

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Spiritual #Yoga #Deep Life

We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Sad #Lonely #Loneliness

He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Wise #Time #Simple

If there is anything I have learned about men and women, it is that there is a deeper spirit of altruism than is ever evident. Just as the rivers we see are minor compared to the underground streams, so, too, the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what people carry in their hearts unreleased or scarcely released.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Heart #Men #Compassion

If you own something you cannot give away, then you don't own it, it owns you.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Giving

The three most important ways to lead people are:... by example... by example... by example.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Leadership #People #Important

To work for the common good is the greatest creed.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Careers #Common #Creeds

Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Men #Perfection #Personality

We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Kindness #Ignorance #Space

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

#Earth #Spirit #Proof

Within every patient there resides a doctor, and we as physicians are at our best when we we put our patients in touch with the doctor inside themselves.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Doctors #Physicians #Patient

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Love #Funny #Music

The time will come when public opinion will no longer tolerate amusements based on the mistreatment and killing of animals. The time will come, but when? When will we reach the point that hunting, the pleasure in killing animals for sport, will be regarded as a mental aberration?
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Sports #Animal #Hunting

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

#Men #Mind Your Own Business #Devil

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

#Life #Men #Honor

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Kindness #Farewell #Humble

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Ethics #Morality #Reverence

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Responsibility #Learning #Exercise

Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Sacrifice #Being Sad #Humanity

Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Clever #Fun #Animal

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

#Relationship #Kindness #Humility

Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Nature #Men #Society

Let us rejoice in the truth, wherever we find its lamp burning.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Lamps #Burning #Rejoice

Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Share

I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Want #Midst

The interior joy we feel when we have done a good deed is the nourishment the soul requires.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Joy #Soul #Done

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Time #Special #Hours

There slowly grew up in me an unshakable conviction that we have no right to inflict suffering and death on another living creature, unless there is some unavoidable necessity for it.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Suffering #Vegan #Conviction

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Time #Truth #Integrity

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

#Respect #Religious #Profound

An idea is, in the end, always stronger than circumstances.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Ideas #Stronger #Ends

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.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Spiritual #Cute Friendship #Being Sad

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

#Gratitude #Science #Thoughtful

The great fault of all ethics hitherto has been that they believed themselves to have to deal only with the relations of man to man. In reality, however, the question is what is his attitude to the world and all life that comes within his reach.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Attitude #Reality #Men

Open your eyes and look for some man, or some work for the sake of men, which needs a little time, a little friendship, a little sympathy, a little sociability, a little human toil....It is needed in every nook and corner. Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Eye #Men #Humanity

Wherever you turn, you can find someone who needs you. Even if it is a little thing, do something for which there is no pay but the privilege of doing it. Remember, you don't live in a world all of your own
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Attitude #Needs #World

Search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Humanity #May

Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil. Affirmation of the world - that is affirmation of the will to live, which appears in phenomenal forms all around me - is only possible for me in that I give myself out for other life.
-- Albert Schweitzer

#Evil #Giving #Principles