Albert Schweitzer Quotes

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.
~ 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


A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.
~ 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


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


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


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


The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.
~ 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


The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
~ Albert Schweitzer


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


The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.
~ 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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.
~ 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


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


My life is my argument.
~ 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


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


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


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


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


Example is leadership.
~ Albert Schweitzer


Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
~ Albert Schweitzer


Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
~ Albert Schweitzer


Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.
~ 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


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


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


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


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


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


One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.
~ Albert Schweitzer


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


Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.
~ Albert Schweitzer


Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal.
~ Albert Schweitzer


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


Serious illness doesn't bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.
~ 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


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


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


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


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


Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.
~ 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




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


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


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