He was the famous Alsatian-born German theologian, philosopher, organist, and mission doctor. His family for generations had been devoted to religion, music, and education.
He was a great humanitarian, inspirational person, and writer. In 1952 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of “the Brotherhood of Nations.” Two years before his death, his hospital and leper colony were serving 500 patients. His philosophical books discuss his famous principle of “reverence for life.” (1875-1965)
– Albert Schweitzer Quotes –
Do something for somebody everyday for which you do not get paid.
~ Albert Schweizer
As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.
~ Albert Schweizer
Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
~ Albert Schweizer
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
One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Example is leadership.
~ Albert Schweizer
The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.
~ Albert Schweizer
Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal.
~ Albert Schweizer
Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.
~ Albert Schweizer
Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
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
Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.
~ Albert Schweitzer
A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal.
~ Albert Schweizer
Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.
~ Albert Schweizer
Example is leadership.
~ Albert Schweizer
The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.
~ Albert Schweizer
I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
~ Albert Schweitzer
The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
~ Albert Schweitzer
I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.
~ Albert Schweitzer
If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Serious illness doesn’t bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.
~ Albert Schweitzer
One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
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
Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.
~ Albert Schweitzer
One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Do something for somebody everyday for which you do not get paid.
~ Albert Schweizer
As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.
~ Albert Schweizer
Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
~ Albert Schweizer
Revenge… is like a rolling stone, which, when a man hath forced up a hill, will return upon him with a greater violence, and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
Do not let Sunday be taken from you If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
~ Albert Schweitzer
The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.
~ Albert Schweitzer
My life is my argument…
~ Albert Schweitzer
Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.
~ Albert Schweitzer
By respect for life we become religious in a way that is elementary, profound and alive.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
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
Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life it is bad to damage and destroy life.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.
~ Albert Schweitzer
A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now – always.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
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
The African is my brother but he is my younger brother by several centuries.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.
~ Albert Schweitzer
The highest proof of the spirit is love. Love the eternal thing which can already on earth possess as it really is.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.
~ Albert Schweitzer
There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
~ Albert Schweitzer
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
Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.
~ Albert Schweitzer
A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.
~ Albert Schweitzer
