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I Still Remain Convinced That Truth, Love, Peaceableness, Meekness, And Kindness Are The Violence Which Can Master All Other Violence. The World Will Be Theirs As Soon As Ever A Sufficient Number Of People With Purity Of Heart, With Strength, And With Perseverance Think And Live Out The Thoughts Of Love And Truth, Of Meekness And Peaceableness.

-Albert Schweitzer

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I Still Remain Convinced

Albert Schweitzer

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I Still Remain Convinced That Truth, Love, Peaceableness, Meekness, And Kindness Are The Violence Which Can Master All Other Violence. The World Will Be Theirs As Soon As Ever A Sufficient Number Of People With Purity Of Heart, With Strength, And With Perseverance Think And Live Out The Thoughts Of Love And Truth, Of Meekness And Peaceableness.

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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.

A Thinking Man Feels Compelled To Approach All Life With The Same Reverence He Has For His Own.

Aim For Service And Success Will Follow!

A Man Who Possesses A Veneration Of Life Will Not Simply Say His Prayers. He Will Throw Himself Into The Battle To Preserve Life, If For No Other Reason Than That He Himself Is An Extension Of Life Around Him.

Mysticism Occurs Whenever A Human Being Sees The Separation Between The Natural And The Supernatural, Between The Temporal And The Eternal, As Overcome.

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.

Cute Friendship

To Me, Good Health Is More Than Just Exercise And Diet. Its Really A Point Of View And A Mental Attitude You Have About Yourself.

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

I Am Life Which Wants To Live Admidst Of Lives That Want To Live.

Don't Let Your Hearts Grow Numb. Stay Alert. It Is Your Soul Which Matters.

Does My Behavior In Respect Of Love Affect Nothing? That Is Because There Is Not Enough Love In Me.

Our Age Is Bent On Trying To Make The Barren Tree Of Skepticism Fruitful By Tying The Fruits Of Truth On Its Branches.

It Seemed Incredible To Me, That Physical Courage Should Be So Commonplace And Revered, While Moral Courage . . . Is So Rare And Despised.

Civilization Can Only Revive When There Shall Come Into Being In A Number Of Individuals A New Tone Of Mind, Independent Of The Prevalent One Among The Crowds, And In Opposition To It - A Tone Of Mind Which Will Gradually Win Influence Over The Collective One, And In The End Determine Its Character. Only An Ethical Movement Can Rescue Us From Barbarism, And The Ethical Comes Into Existence Only In Individuals.

When We Observe Contemporary Society One Thing Strikes Us. We Debate But Make No Progress. Why? Because As Peoples We Do Not Yet Trust Each Other.

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.

I Do Not Know What Your Destiny May Be, But I Do Know This, That Not One Of You Will Find The Happiness That Each Of You Is Seeking Until You Have First Sought And Found A Way In Which To Unselfishly Serve Others.

Faith Which Refuses To Face Indisputable Facts Is But Little Faith. Truth Is Always Gain, However Hard It Is To Accommodate Ourselves To It. To Linger In Any Kind Of Untruth Proves To Be A Departure From The Straight Way Of Faith.

We Must All Die. But That I Can Save Him From Days Of Torture, That Is What I Feel As My Great And Ever New Privilege. Pain Is A More Terrible Lord Of Mankind Than Even Death Itself.

Anyone Who Proposes To Do Good Must Not Expect People To Roll Stones Out Of His Way, But Must Accept His Lot Calmly If They Even Roll A Few More Upon It.

I Must Forgive Without Noise Or Fuss.

Knowing Who You Are

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.

By Respect For Life We Become Religious In A Way That Is Elementary, Profound And Alive. 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. 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

The Quiet Conscience Is The Invention Of The Devil. No One Of Us May Permit Any Preventable Pain To Be Inflicted Even Though The Responsibility For That Pain Is Not Ours. No One May Shut His Eyes And Think That The Pain Which Is Therefore Not Visible, Is Non-existent.

The Ethic Of Reverence For Life Prompts Us To Keep Each Other Alert To What Troubles Us And To Speak And Act Dauntlessly Together In Discharging The Responsibility That We Feel. It Keeps Us Watching Together For Opportunities To Bring Some Sort Of Help To Animals In Recompense For The Great Misery That Men Inflict Upon Them, And Thus For A Moment We Escape From The Incomprehensible Horror Of Existence.

It Is Not Enough Merely To Exist. It's Not Enough To Say, "i'm Earning Enough To Support My Family. I Do My Work Well. I'm A Good Father, Husband, Churchgoer." That's All Very Well. But You Must Do Something More. 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. Even If It's A Little Thing, Do Something For Those Who Need Help, Something For Which You Get No Pay But The Privilege Of Doing It. For Remember, You Don't Live In A World All Your Own. Your Brothers Are Here Too.

Ethics Are Complete, Profound And Alive Only When Addressed To All Living Beings. Only Then Are We In Spiritual Connection With The World. Any Philosophy Not Representing This, Not Based On The Indefinite Totality Of Life, Is Bound To Disappear.

Any Profound View Of The World Is Mysticism. It Has, Of Course, To Deal With Life And The World, Both Of Which Are Nonrational Entities.

Thought Cannot Avoid The Ethical Or Reverence And Love For All Life. It Will Abandon The Old Confined Systems Of Ethics And Be Forced To Recognize The Ethics That Knows No Bounds. But On The Other Hand, Those Who Believe In Love For All Creation Must Realize Clearly The Difficulties Involved In The Problem Of A Boundless Ethic And Must Be Resolved Not To Veil From Humankind The Conflicts Which This Ethic Will Involve Us, But Allow Us Really To Experience Them. To Think Out In Every Implication The Ethic Of Love For All Creation This Is The Difficult Task Which Confronts Our Age.

Inspirational Love

I Am Certain And Have Always Stressed That The Destination Of Mankind Is To Become More And More Humane. The Ideal Of Humanity Has To Be Revived.

Cold Completely Introspective Logic Places A Philosopher On The Road To The Abstract. Out Of This Empty, Artificial Act Of Thinking There Can Result, Of Course, Nothing Which Bears On The Relation Of Man To Himself, And To The Universe.

But The Others, Those Who Tried To Bring Jesus To Life At The Call Of Love, Found It A Cruel Task To Be Honest. The Critical Study Of The Life Of Jesus Has Been For Theology A School Of Honesty. The World Had Never Seen Before, And Will Never See Again, A Struggle For Truth So Full Of Pain And Renunciation As That Of Which The Lives Of Jesus Of The Last Hundred Years Contain The Cryptic Record.

It Is Not Enough To Merely Exist. It's Not Enough To Say, 'i'm Earning Enough To Live And Support My Family. I Do My Work Well. I'm A Good Parent.' That's All Very Well. But You Must Do Something More.

Reverence For Life, Veneratio Vitæ, Is The Most Direct And At The Same Time The Profoundest Achievement Of My Will-to-live.

Reverence For Life

We Are All So Much Together, But We Are All Dying Of Loneliness.

Therapy Is The Boat Across The River, But Most Don't Want To Get Off. Don't Blame, Forgive, All Healing Is Self-healing

The Bhagavad-gita Has A Profound Influence On The Spirit Of Mankind By Its Devotion To God Which Is Manifested By Actions.

Devotion To God

Example Is Leadership.

The Fundamental Rights Of [humanity] Are, First: The Right Of Habitation; Second, The Right To Move Freely; Third, The Right To The Soil And Subsoil, And To The Use Of It; Fourth, The Right Of Freedom Of Labor And Of Exchange; Fifth, The Right To Justice; Sixth, The Right To Live Within A Natural National Organization; And Seventh, The Right To Education.

If You Own Something You Cannot Give Away, Then You Don't Own It, It Owns You.

Don't Blame, Forgive, All Healing Is Self-healing

We Cannot Abdicate Our Conscience To An Organization, Nor To A Government.

Anyone Who Proposes To Do Good Must Not Expect People To Roll Stones Out Of His Way, But Must Accept His Lot Calmly If They Even Roll A Few More On It. A Strength Which Becomes Clearer And Stronger Through Experiences Of Such Obstacles Is The Only Strength That Can Conquer Them. Resistance Is Only A Waste Of Strength.

Eventually All Things Fall Into Place. Until Then, Laugh At The Confusion, Live For The Moments, And Know Everything Happens For A Reason.

Everything Happens For A Reason

The Tragedy Of Life Is What Dies Inside A Man While He Lives.

Jesus Means Something To Our World Because A Mighty Spiritual Force Streams Forth From Him And Flows Through Our Being Also. This Fact Can Neither Be Shaken Nor Confirmed By Any Historical Discovery. It Is The Solid Foundation Of Christianity.

Truth Has No Special Time Of Its Own. Its Hour Is Now - Always.

The Gratitude That We Encounter Helps Us Believe In The Goodness Of The World, And Strengthens Us Thereby To Do What's Good.

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.

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.

God Much Are The Truly Wealthy. So Our Inner Happiness Depends Not On What We Experience But On The Degree Of Our Gratitude To God, Gratitude — The Secret Of Life.

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.

Ethics Is Nothing Else Than Reverence For Life.

Reverence For Life

Humanitarianism Consists In Never Sacrificing A Human Being To A Purpose.

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.

The Last Fact Which Knowledge Can Discover Is That The World Is A Manifestation, And In Every Way A Puzzling Manifestation, Of The Universal Will To Live.

Renunciation Of Thinking Is A Declaration Of Spiritual Bankruptcy.

The Interior Joy We Feel When We Have Done A Good Deed Is The Nourishment The Soul Requires.

In Modern European Thought A Tragedy Is Occurring In That The Original Bonds Uniting The Affirmative Attitude Towards The World With Ethics Are, By A Slow But Irresistible Process, Loosening And Finally Parting. Out Of My Life And Thought.

I Used To Suffer Particularly Because The Poor Animals Must Endure So Much Pain And Want. The Sight Of An Old, Limping Horse Being Dragged Along By One Man While Another Man Struck Him With A Stick He Was Being Driven To The Colmar Slaughterhouse - Haunted Me For Weeks.

My Life Is Full Of Meaning To Me. The Life Around Me Must Be Full Of Significance To Itself. If I Am To Expect Others To Respect My Life, Then I Must Respect The Other Life I See.

Example Is Not The Main Thing In Influencing Others. It Is The Only Thing.

A Man Does Not Have To Be An Angel In Order To Be Saint.

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.

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.

Man Is A Clever Animal Who Behaves Like An Imbecile.

Never For A Moment Do We Lay Aside Our Mistrust Of The Ideals Established By Society, And Of The Convictions Which Are Kept By It In Circulation. We Always Know That Society Is Full Of Folly And Will Deceive Us In The Matter Of Humanity. ... Humanity Meaning Consideration For The Existence And The Happiness Of Individual Human Beings.

The Highest Knowledge Is To Know That We Are Surrounded By Mystery. Neither Knowledge Nor Hope For The Future Can Be The Pivot Of Our Life Or Determine Its Direction. It Is Intended To Be Solely Determined By Our Allowing Ourselves To Be Gripped By The Ethical God, Who Reveals Himself In Us, And By Our Yielding Our Will To His.

The Quiet Conscience Is An Invention Of The Devil.

It Is Through The Idealism Of Youth That Man Catches Sight Of Truth, And In That Idealism He Possesses A Wealth Which He Must Never Exchange For Anything Else.

If You Love What You Are Doing, You Will Be Successful.

Not Only Is Example The Best Way To Teach, It Is The Only Way.

No Man Need Fear Death, He Need Fear Only That He May Die Without Having Known His Greatest Power: The Power Of His Free Will To Give His Life For Others

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.

We Are Compelled By The Commandment Of Love Contained In Our Hearts And Thought, And Proclaimed By Jesus, To Give Rein To Our Natural Sympathy For Animals. We Are Also Compelled To Help Them And Spare Them Suffering.

Profound Love Demands A Deep Conception And Out Of This Develops Reverence For The Mystery Of Life. It Brings Us Close To All Beings, To The Poorest And Smallest As Well As All Others.

Let Your Life Be Your Argument.

You Must Learn To Understand The Secret Of Gratitude. It Is More Than Just So-called Virtue. It Is Revealed To You As A Mysterious Law Of Existence. In Obedience To It We Have To Fulfill Our Destiny.

Think With Deep Gratitude Of Those Who Have Lighted The Flames Within Us.

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.

The Disastrous Feature Of Our Civilization Is That It Is Far More Developed Materially Than Spiritually. Its Balance Is Disturbed.

In Case My Life Should End With The Cannibals, I Hope They Will Write On My Tombstone, 'we Have Eaten Dr. Schweitzer. He Was Good To The End.'

At 20 Everyone Has The Face That God Gave Them, At 40 The Face That Life Gave Them, And At 60 The Face They Earned.

What We Call Love Is In Its Essence Reverence For Life.

Reverence For Life

There Is Within Each Of Us A Modulation, An Inner Exaltation, Which Lifts Us Above The Buffetings With Which Events Assail Us. Likewise, It Lifts Us Above Dependence Upon The Gifts Of Events For Our Joy.

Ethics Has Not Only To Do With Mankind But With The Animal Creation As Well. This Is Witnessed In The Purpose Of St. Francis Of Assisi. Thus We Shall Arrive That Ethics Is Reverence For All Life. This Is The Ethic Of Love Widened Universally. It Is The Ethic Of Jesus Now Recognized As A Necessity Of Thought...only A Universal Ethic Which Embraces Every Living Creature Can Put Us In Touch With The Universe And The Will Which Is There Manifest.

I Decided That I Would Make My Life My Argument.

I See In Him (dr. Max Gerson) One Of The Most Eminent Medical Geniuses In The History Of Medicine...he Was Greatly Impeded By Adverse Political Conditions.

I Look Back Upon My Youth And Realize How So Many People Gave Me Help, Understanding, Courage - Very Important Things To Me - And They Never Knew It. They Entered Into My Life And Became Powers Within Me.

The Only Thing Of Importance, When We Depart, Will Be The Traces Of Love We Have Left Behind.

Reverence For Life Brings Us Into A Spiritual Relation With The World Which Is Independent Of All Knowledge Of The Universe.

Grow Into Your Ideals So That Life Cannot Rob You Of Them.

Who Shall Enumerate The Many Ways In Which That Costly Piece Of Fixed Capital, A Human Being , May Be Employed! More Of Him Is Wanted Everywhere! Hunt, Then, For Some Situation In Which Your Humanity May Be Used.

We Cannot Possibly Let Ourselves Get Frozen Into Regarding Everyone We Do Not Know As An Absolute Stranger.

Think Occasionally Of The Suffering Of Which You Spare Yourself The Sight.

Because I Have Confidence In The Power Of Truth, And Of The Spirit, I Have Confidence In The Future Of Mankind.

Thinking About Death... Produces Love For Life. When We Are Familiar With Death, We Accept Each Week, Each Day, As A Gift. Only If We Are Able Thus To Accept Life Bit By Bit Does It Become Precious.

Do Something For Somebody Everyday For Which You Do Not Get Paid.

As We Acquire Knowledge, Things Do Not Become More Comprehensible, But More Mysterious.

Most Men Are Scantily Nourished On A Modicum Of Happiness And A Number Of Empty Thoughts Which Life Lays On Their Plates. They Are Kept In The Road Of Life Through Stern Necessity By Elemental Duties Which They Cannot Avoid.

The Fellowship Of Those Who Bear The Mark Of Pain: Who Are The Members Of This Fellowship? Those Who Have Learnt By Experience What Physical Pain And Bodily Anguish Mean, Belong Together All The World Over; They Are United By A Secret Bond.

I Do Not Believe That We Can Put Into Anyone Ideas Which Are Not In Him Already. As A Rule There Are In Everyone All Sorts Of Good Ideas, Ready Like Tinder. But Much Of This Tinder Catches Fire, Or Catches It Successfully, Only When It Meets Some Flame Or Spark From Outside, I.e., From Some Other Person.

Not Less Strong Than The Will To Truth Must Be The Will To Sincerity. Only An Age, Which Can Show The Courage Of Sincerity, Can Possess Truth, Which Works As A Spiritual Force Within It.

The Gratitude Ascending From Man To God Is The Supreme Transaction Between Earth And Heaven.

Man Has Become A Superman ... Because He Not Only Disposes Oinnate, Physical Forces, But Because He Is In Command ... Olatent Forces In Nature And Because He Can Put Them To His Service.... But The Essential Fact We Must Surely All Feel In Our Hearts ... Is That We Are Becoming Inhuman In Proportion As We Become Supermen.

O Heavenly Father, Protect And Bless All Things That Have Breath: Guard Them From All Evil And Let Them Sleep In Peace.

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.

The Only Way Out Of Today's Misery Is For People To Become Worthy Of Each Other's Trust.

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.

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.

In The Past We Have Tried To Make A Distinction Between Animals Which We Acknowledge Have Some Value And Other Which, Having None, Can Be Liquidated When We Wish. This Standard Must Be Abandoned. Everything That Lives Has Value Simply As A Living Thing, As One Of The Manifestations Of The Mystery That Is Life.

The Only Ones Who Will Find Real Happiness Are Those Who Find A Way To Serve

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.

Awakening Of Western Thought Will Not Be Complete Until That Thought Steps Outside Itself And Comes To An Understanding With The Search For A World-view As This Manifests Itself In The Thought Of Mankind As A Whole.

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.

Very Little Of The Great Cruelty Shown By Men Can Really Be Attributed To Cruel Instinct. Most Of It Comes From Thoughtlessness Or Inherited Habit. Extract From 'memories Of Childhood And Youth.'

It Is Only Through Love That We Can Attain To Communion With God. All Living Knowledge Of God Rests Upon This Foundation: That We Experience Him In Our Lives As Will-to-love.

Knowledge Of God

Today . . . We Know That All Living Beings Who Strive To Maintain Life And Who Long To Be Spared Pain - All Living Beings On Earth - Are Our Neighbors.

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.

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.

The Thinking Man Must Oppose All Cruelties No Matter How Deeply Rooted In Tradition Or Surrounded By A Halo.

Hear Our Humble Prayer, O God. Make Us, Ourselves, To Be True Friends To The Animals.

For Us The Great Men Are Not Those Who Solved The Problems, But Those Whodiscovered Them.

The Purpose Of Human Life Is To Serve, And To Show Compassion And The Will To Help Others.

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.

Love Is The Only Thing That Increases Twofold Every Time It Is Shared.

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.

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.

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.

Only Through Love Can We Obtain Communion With God.

Communion With God

The Highest Knowledge Is To Know That We Are Surrounded By Mystery.

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.

The Mistake Made By All Previous Systems Of Ethics Has Been The Failure To Recognize That Life As Such Is The Mysterious Value With Which They Have To Deal. All Spiritual Life Meets Us Within Natural Life. Reverence For Life, Therefore, Is Applied To Natural Life And Spiritual Life Alike. In The Parable Of Jesus, The Shepherd Saves Not Merely The Soul Of The Lost Sheep But The Whole Animal. The Stronger The Reverence For Natural Life, The Stronger Grows Also That For Spiritual Life.

Preservation Of Life Is The Only True Joy.

Preservation Of Life

It's Not Enough Merely To Exist. Every Man Has To Seek In His Own Way To Make His Own Self More Noble And To Relize His Own True Worth.

The Most Difficult Thing I Have Ever Had To Do Is Follow The Guidance I Prayed For.

Difficult Things

Constant Kindness Can Accomplish Much. As The Sun Makes Ice Melt, Kindness Causes Misunderstanding, Mistrust, And Hostility To Evaporate.

Who Can Describe The Injustice And The Cruelties That In The Course Of Centuries The Peoples Of Color Of The World Have Suffered At The Hands Of Europeans?... We And Our Civilization Are Burdened, Really, With A Great Debt. We Are Not Free To Confer Benefits On These Men, Or Not, As We Please; It Is Our Duty. Anything We Give Them Is Not Benevolence But Atonement.

There Is Much Coldness Among Men Because We Do Not Dare To Be As Cordial As We Really Are.

All The Kindness Which A Man Puts Out Into The World Works On The Heart And Thoughts Of Mankind.

Each Act Of Unfaithfulness Toward Our Inner Being Is A Blot On Our Souls. If We Continue To Be Unfaithful, Our Souls Are Eventually Torn Apart And We Slowly Bleed To Death.

Love . . . Includes Fellowship In Suffering, In Joy And In Effort.

To Educate Yourself For The Feeling Of Gratitude Means To Take Nothing For Granted.

Because I Have Confidence In The Power Of Truth And In The Spirit, I Believe In The Future Of Mankind. Affirmation Of The World And Of Life Contains Within Itself An Optimistic Willing And Hoping Which Can Never Be Lost. It Is, Therefore, Never Afraid To Face The Dismal Reality And To See It As It Really Is.

Happiness Is Nothing More Than Good Health And A Bad Memory.

Joy, Sorrow, Tears, Lamentation, Laughter -- To All These Music Gives Voice

Man Can No Longer Live His Life For Himself Alone. We Realize That All Life Is Valuable And That We Are United To All This Life. From This Knowledge Comes Our Spiritual Relationship To The Universe.

Success Is Not The Key To Happiness. Happiness Is The Key To Success. If You Love What You Are Doing, You Will Be Successful.

We Are Gripped By God’s Will Of Love, And Must Help Carry Out That Will In This World, In Small Things As In Great Things, In Saving As In Pardoning. To Be Glad Instruments Of God’s Love In This Imperfect World Is The Service To Which We Are Called.

Imperfect World

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.

Every Start On An Untrodden Path Is A Venture Which Only In Unusual Circumstances Looks Sensible And Likely To Succeed.

Pain Is A More Terrible Lord Of Mankind Than Even Death Itself.

We All Owe To Others Much Of The Gentleness And Wisdom That We Have Made Our Own; And We May Well Ask Ourselves What Will Others Owe To Us

Let Me Give You A Definition Of Ethics: It Is Good To Maintain And Further Life It Is Bad To Damage And Destroy Life.

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.

Long Distance Relationship

I Too Had Thoughts Once Of Being An Intellectual, But I Found It Too Difficult.

The Greatest Living Person In The World Is Some Individual Who At This Very Moment Has Gone In Love To Help Another.

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.

The Highest Proof Of The Spirit Is Love. Love The Eternal Thing Which Can Already On Earth Possess As It Really Is.

The Spirit Of The Age Is Filled With The Disdain For Thinking.

Creative Energy Is The Essence Of All Healing...we Physicians Do Nothing, We Only Help And Encourage The Physician Within.

What Does Reverence For Life Say Abut The Relations Between [humanity] And The Animal World? Whenever I Injury Any Kind Of Life I Must Be Quite Certain That It Is Necessary. I Must Never Go Beyond The Unavoidable, Not Even In Apparently Insignificant Things. The Farmer Who Has Mowed Down A Thousand Flowers In His Meadow In Order To Feed His Cows Must Be Careful On His Way Home Not To Strike The Head Off A Single Flower By The Side Of The Road In Idle Amusement, For He Thereby Infringes On The Law Of Life Without Being Under The Pressure Of Necessity.

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.

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.

Do Not Lose Heart, Even If You Must Wait A Bit Before Finding The Right Thing. Be Prepared For Disappointment Also, But Do Not Abandon The Quest.

Don't Stop To Ask Whether The Animal Or Plant You Meet Deserves Your Sympathy, Or How Much It Feels, Or Even Whether It Can Feel At All: Respect It And Consider All Life Sacred.

The Christ Of Theology Is Not Alive For Us Today. He Is Wrapped In The Grave Cloths Of Dogma.

To Work For The Common Good Is The Greatest Creed.

Community Service

My Life Carries Its Own Meaning In Itself.

Meaning Of Life

Knowing All Truth Is Less Than Doing A Little Bit Of Good.

If You Truly Desire Happiness, Seek And Learn How To Serve.

The Study Of The Life Of Jesus Has Had A Curious History. It Set Out In Quest Of The Historical Jesus, Believing That When It Had Found Him It Could Bring Him Straight Into Our Time As A Teacher And Saviour. ... But He Does Not Stay; He Passes By Our Time And Returns To His Own... He Returned To His Own Time, Not Owing To The Application Of Any Historical Ingenuity, But By The Same Inevitable Necessity By Which The Liberated Pendulum Returns To Its Original Position.

But Merely Accepting Authoritarian Truth, Even If That Truth Has Some Virtue, Does Not Bring Skepticism To An End. To Blindly Accept A Truth One Has Never Reflected Upon Retards The Advance Of Reason. Our World Rots In Deceit. . . . Just As A Tree Bears The Same Fruit Year After Year And At The Same Time Fruit That Is New Each Year, So Must All Permanently Valuable Ideas Be Continually Created Anew In Thought. But Our Age Pretends To Make A Sterile Tree Bear Fruit By Tying Fruits Of Truth Onto Its Branches.

For Those Who Sincerely Seek The Truth Should Not Fear The Outcome.

Bach Is Thus A Terminal Point. Nothing Comes From Him; Everything Merely Leads To Him.

Good Is That Which Promotes Life, Evil Is That Which Destroys Life

Living Truth Is That Alone Which Has Its Origins In Thinking. Just As A Tree Bears Year After Year The Same Fruit Which Is Each Year New, So Must All Permanently Valuable Ideas Be Continually Born Again In Thought.

Soldiers' Graves Are The Greatest Preachers Of Peace.

Civilization Can Only Revive When There Shall Come Into Being In A Number Of Individuals A New Tone Of Mind Independent Of The One Prevalent Among The Crowd And In Opposition To It. A New Public Opinion Must Be Created Privately And Unobtrusively. The Existing One Is Maintained By The Press, By Propaganda, By Organization, And By Financial Influences Which Are At Its Disposal. The Unnatural Way Of Spreading Ideas Must Be Opposed By The Natural One, Which Goes From Man To Man And Relies Solely On The Truth Of The Thoughts And The Hearer's Receptiveness Of New Truth.

The First Step In The Evolution Of Ethics Is A Sense Of Solidarity With Other Human Beings.

If You Study Life Deeply, Its Profundity Will Seize You Suddenly With Dizziness.

Whatever You Have Received More Than Others-in Health, In Talents, In Ability, In Success, In A Pleasant Childhood, In Harmonious Conditions Of Home Life-all This You Must Not Take To Yourself As A Matter Of Course. In Gratitude For Your Good Fortune, You Must Remember In Return Some Sacrifice Of Your Own Life For Another Life.

Happiness Is The Only Thing That Multiplies When You Share It.

The Greatest Thing Is To Give Thanks For Everything. He Who Has Learned This Knows What It Means To Live. He Has Penetrated The Whole Mystery Of Life: Giving Thanks For Everything.

Every Person I Have Known Who Has Been Truly Happy Has Learned How To Serve Others.

An Idea Is, In The End, Always Stronger Than Circumstances.

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.

We Must Never Allow The Voice Of Humanity Within Us To Be Silenced. It Is Humanity's Sympathy With All Creatures That First Makes Us Truly Human.

The Three Most Important Ways To Lead People Are:... By Example... By Example... By Example.

Set A Great Example. Someone May Imitate It.

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.

We Cannot Understand What Happens In The Universe. What Is Glorious In It Is United With What Is Full Of Horror. What Is Full Of Meaning Is United To What Is Senseless. The Spirit Of The Universe Is At Once Creative And Destructive — It Creates While It Destroys And Destroys While It Creates, And Therefore It Remains To Us A Riddle. And We Must Inevitably Resign Ourselves To This.

Just As White Light Consists Of Colored Rays, So Reverence For Life Contains All The Components Of Ethics: Love, Kindliness, Sympathy, Empathy, Peacefulness And Power To Forgive.

I Have Given Up The Ambition To Be A Great Scholar. I Want To Be More- Simply A Human. . . . We Are Not True Humans, But Beings Who Live By A Civilization Inherited From The Past, That Keeps Us Hostage, That Confines Us. No Freedom Of Movement. Nothing. Everything In Us Is Killed By Our Calculations For Our Future, By Our Social Position And Cast. You See, I Am Not Happy-yet I Am Happy. I Suffer, But That Is Part Of Life. I Live, I Don't Care About My Existence, And That Is The Beginning Of Wisdom.

We Need A Boundless Ethic, One Which Will Include The Animals, Too. Until We Extend The Circle Of His Compassions To All Living Things, We Will Not Find Peace.

You Know Of The Disease In Central Africa Called Sleeping Sickness. . . . There Also Exists A Sleeping Sickness Of The Soul. Its Most Dangerous Aspect Is That One Is Unaware Of Its Coming. That Is Why You Have To Be Careful. As Soon As You Notice The Slightest Sign Of Indifference, The Moment You Become Aware Of The Loss Of A Certain Seriousness, Of Longing, Of Enthusiasm And Zest, Take It As A Warning. You Should Realize Your Soul Suffers If You Live Superficially.

Thought Is The Strongest Thing We Have.

Animal Protection Is Education To The Humanity.

I Do Not Want To Frighten You By Telling You About The Temptations Life Will Bring. Anyone Who Is Healthy In Spirit Will Overcome Them. But There Is Something I Want You To Realize. It Does Not Matter So Much What You Do. What Matters Is Whether Your Soul Is Harmed By What You Do. If Your Soul Is Harmed, Something Irreparable Happens, The Extent Of Which You Won't Realize Until It Will Be Too Late.

We Cannot Abdicate Our Conscience To An Organization, Nor To A Government. 'am I My Brother's Keeper?' Most Certainly I Am! I Cannot Escape My Responsibility By Saying The State Will Do All That Is Necessary. It Is A Tragedy That Nowadays So Many Think And Feel Otherwise.

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Elizabeth Hardwick

Helen Hunt Jackson

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