Albert Schweitzer was an Alsatian Lutherean minister. He was a Nobel Prize winner and a polymath. He had diverse knowledge of ethics, music, and medicine. He was known for his progressive and inclusive philosophies. Although he was not strictly secular, his writings have a universal quality to them. His book The Quest of the Historical Jesus is a foundational book of theology and eschatology.
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Albert Schweitzer Quotes about Religion and Ethics
He received his Nobel Peace Prize while working with “The Brotherhood of Nations”. His father was also a Lutheran pastor; which encouraged his study of philosophy and theology. He was a lecturer in philosophy and had a doctorate in theology.
1. “At that point in life where your talent meets the needs of the world, that is where God wants you to be.” – Albert Schweitzer
2. “As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.” – Albert Schweitzer
3. “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
4. “By respect for life we become religious in a way that is elementary, profound and alive.” – Albert Schweitzer
5. “Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life — it is bad to damage and destroy life. And this ethic, profound and universal, has the significance of a religion. It is religion.” – Albert Schweitzer
6. “Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” – Albert Schweitzer
7. “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
8. “O heavenly Father, protect and bless all things that have breath: guard them from all evil and let them sleep in peace.” – Albert Schweitzer
9. “Humanitarianism consists of never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.” – Albert Schweitzer
10.”Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.” – Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer Quotes about Philosophy:
As Schweitzer was a prisoner of war during the First World War, which diverted his attention to the aimless violence of the world. Thus he wrote Philosophy of Civilization (Kulturephiliosophie) in 1923. His philosophy is not strictly bound to religion, which serves greatly as a universal moralistic ground.
His personal philosophy is called “Reverence For Life” which says: ‘I am life which wills to live, and I exist in the midst of life which wills to live.'” thus respecting other life forms is the only way to find a universal ethical code that applies to all.
- “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” – Albert Schweitzer
2. “The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are. Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.” – Albert Schweitzer
3. “The greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering the attitudes of their minds.” – Albert Schweitzer
4. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” – Albert Schweitzer
5. “Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now — always, and indeed then most truly when it seems most unsuitable to actual circumstances. Care for distress at home and care for distress elsewhere do but help each other if, working together, they wake men in sufficient numbers from their thoughtlessness, and call into life a new spirit of humanity.” – Albert Schweitzer
6. “If you own something you cannot give away, then you don’t own it, it owns you.” – Albert Schweitzer
7. “The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics.” – Albert Schweitzer
8. “Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.” – Albert Schweitzer
9. “No one can give a definition of the soul. But we know what it feels like. The soul is the sense of something higher than ourselves, something that stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspirations which go out to the world of goodness, truth and beauty. The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it–to remain children of light.” – Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer Quotes about Life:
Schweitzer had spent a considerable amount of time in philanthropic endeavors which brought home closer to the woes of the third-world countries in the wake of devastating colonialism. Schweitzer was also unusually perceptive to Bach’s music and studied and interpreted his music for years. He produced a philosophical and theological understanding of Bach, which was universal.
1. “In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.” – Albert Schweitzer
2. “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
3. “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
4. “Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moments, and know everything happens for a reason.” – Albert Schweitzer
5. “A man does not have to be an angel to be a saint.” – Albert Schweitzer
6. “Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.” – Albert Schweitzer
7. “The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.” – Albert Schweitzer
8. “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” – Albert Schweitzer
9. “The tragedy in a man’s life is what dies inside of him while he lives.” – Albert Schweitzer
10. “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
11. “The the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hope are optimistic.” – Albert Schweitzer
12. “passes he stands for a moment close to us, as though illumined by a flash of lightning. Then we see him as he really is. After” – Albert Schweitzer
13. “Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now– always and indeed then most truly when it seems unsuitable to actual circumstances.” – Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer Quotes about Endurance and Health
Schweitzer was a doctor of medicine and practiced abundantly while on his philanthropic missions. He had a very interesting take on health and endurance.
1. “Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.” – Albert Schweitzer
2. “Serious illness doesn’t bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.”– Albert Schweitzer
3. “Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.”– Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer Quotes about Love and Empathy
Life and love are both the spiritual essence that connects us to the universe. Ethics therefore should be founded upon love and respect for everyone else’s will to live, according to Schweitzer.
1. “Doctors must go out to the colonies as a humane duty mandated by the conscience of society. Whoever among us has learned through personal experience what pain and anxiety really are must help to ensure that those out there who are in physical need obtain the same help that once came to him. He no longer belongs to himself alone; he has become the brother of all who suffer. It is this “brotherhood of those who bear the mark of pain” that demands humane medical services for the colonies. Commissioned by their representatives, medical people must do for the suffering in far-off lands what cries out to be done in the name of true civilization. It was because I relied on the elementary truth embodied in this idea, the “brotherhood of those who bear the mark of pain,” that I ventured to found the forest hospital at Lambaréné.”– Albert Schweitzer
2. “The highest proof of the spirit is love. Love the eternal thing which can already on earth possess as it really is.”– Albert Schweitzer
3. “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” – Albert Schweitzer
4. “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
5. “Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.” – Albert Schweitzer
6. “The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.”– Albert Schweitzer
7. “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”– Albert Schweitzer
8. “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer
9. “Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.”– Albert Schweitzer
10. “If you love something so much let it go. If it comes back it was meant to be; if it doesn’t it never was.”– Albert Schweitzer
11. “When people have light in themselves, it will shine out from them. Then we get to know each other as we walk together in the darkness, without needing to pass our hands over each other’s faces, or to intrude into each other’s hearts” – Albert Schweitzer
12. “We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.”– Albert Schweitzer
13. “The only thing of importance, when we depart, will be the traces of love we have left behind.” – Albert Schweitzer
14. “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
15. “You don’t live in a world all alone. Your brothers are here too.”– Albert Schweitzer
