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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

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Not One Of Us

Albert Schweitzer

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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.

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We All Know How Important Love Is, Yet How Often Is It Really Emoted Or Exhibited? What So Many Sick People In This World Suffer From-loneliness, Boredom And Fear-can't Be Cured With A Pill.

The Great Secret Of Success Is To Go Through Life As A Man Who Never Gets Used To Failing.

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

Do Not Let Sunday Be Taken From You. If Your Soul Has No Sunday, It Becomes An Orphan.

The Result Of The Voyage Does Not Depend On The Speed Of The Ship, But On Whether Or Not It Keeps A True Course.

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.

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.

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

Help Me To Fling My Life Like A Flaming Firebrand Into The Gathering Darkness Of The World.

That's My Private Ant. You're Liable To Break Its Legs.

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

There Can Be No Kingdom Of God In The World Without The Kingdom Of God In Our Hearts.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

In Resigning Ourselves To Our Fate Without A Struggle, We Are Guilty Of Inhumanity.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

As Soon As Man Does Not Take His Existence For Granted, But Beholds It As Something Unfathomably Mysterious, Thought Begins.

From Naive Simplicity We Arrive At More Profound Simplicity.

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.

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.

Where Principles And Heart Stand In Conflict With Each Other, Let Us Make The Law Of The Spirit Free From The Law Of Principles.

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

What Has Been Presented As Christianity During These Nineteen Centuries Is Only A Beginning, Full Of Mistakes, Not Full Blown Christianity Springing From The Spirit Of Jesus.

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.

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 In His Own.

The Destiny Of Man Is To Be More And More Human.

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

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.

Once A Man Recognizes Himself As A Being Surrounded By Other Beings In This World And Begins To Respect His Life And Take It To The Highest Value, He Becomes A Thinking Being. Then He Values Other Lives And Experiences Them As Part Of His Own Life. With That, His Goal Is To Help Everyone Take Their Life To The Highest Value; Anything Which Limits Or Destroys A Life Is Evil. That Is Morality. That Is How Men Are Related To The World Around Them.

In The Same Way As The Tree Bears The Same Fruit Year After Year, But Each Time New Fruit, All Lastingly Valuable Ideas In Thinking Must Always Be Reborn.

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

Be Faithful To Your Love And You Mill Be Recompensed Beyond Measure.

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."

Those Who Experiment On Animals Should Never Be Able To Quiet Their Own Conscience By Telling Themselves That These Cruelties Have A Worthy Aim.

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.

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Everything Happens For A Reason

Man Can Hardly Even Recognize The Devils Of His Own Creation.

Mind Your Own Business

A Good Example Has Twice The Value Of Good Advice

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.

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

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

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.

Where Possible Paul Avoids Quoting The Teaching Of Jesus, In Fact Even Mentioning It. If We Had To Rely On Paul, We Should Not Know That Jesus Taught In Parables, Had Delivered The Sermon On The Mount, And Had Taught His Disciples The 'our Father.' Even Where They Are Specially Relevant, Paul Passes Over The Words Of The Lord.

Our Degeneration, When It Is Traced Back To Its Origin In Our View Of The World Really Consists In The Fact That True Optimism Has Vanished Unperceived From Our Midst.

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.

It Seemed To Me A Matter Of Course That We Should All Take Our Share Of The Burden Of Pain Which Lies Upon The World.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

To The Truly Ethical Man, All Of Life Is Sacred, Including Forms Of Life That From The Human Point Of View May Seem Lower Than Ours.

If The Extension Of Your Compassion Does Not Include All Living Beings, Then You Will Be Unable To Find Peace By Yourself.

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

Your Soul Suffers If You Live Superficially.

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

The African Is My Brother But He Is My Younger Brother By Several Centuries.

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.

Pablo Casals Is A Great Musician In All He Does: A Cellist Without Equal, And Extraordinary Conductor And Composer With Something To Say. I Have Been Profoundly Impressed By All I Have Heard Of His Work, But He Is A Musician Of This Stature Because He Is Also A Great Man.

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.

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

Animal Protection Is Education To The Humanity.

To Educate Yourself For The Feeling Of Gratitude Means To Take Nothing For Granted, But To Always Seek Out And Value The Kindness That Stands Behind The Action. Nothing That Is Done For You Is A Matter Of Course. Everything Originates In A Will For The Good, Which Is Directed At You. Train Yourself Never To Put Off The Word Or Action For The Expression Of Gratitude.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

My Life Carries Its Own Meaning In Itself.

Meaning Of Life

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.

Ethical Existence [is] The Highest Manifestation Of Spirituality.

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

I Am Life That Wants To Live, In The Midst Of Life That Wants To Live.

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.

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.

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

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.

Reverence For Life . . . Does Not Allow The Scholar To Live For His Science Alone, Even If He Is Very Useful . . . The Artist To Exist Only For His Art, Even If He Gives Inspiration To Many. . . . It Refuses To Let The Business Man Imagine That He Fulfills All Legitimate Demands In The Course Of His Business Activities. It Demands From All That They Should Sacrifice A Portion Of Their Own Lives For Others.

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.

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.

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

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

To Work For The Common Good Is The Greatest Creed.

Community Service

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

Man Has Lost The Capacity To Foresee And To Forestall. He Will End By Destroying The Earth.

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

To The Man Who Is Truly Ethical All Life Is Sacred, Including That Which From The Human Point Of View Seems Lower In The Scale. He Makes Distinctions Only As Each Case Comes Before Him, And Under The Pressure Of Necessity, As, For Example, When It Falls To Him To Decide Which Of Two Lives He Must Sacrifice In Order To Preserve The Other. But All Through This Series Of Decisions He Is Conscious Of Acting On Subjective Grounds And Arbitrarily, And Knows That He Bears The Responsibility For The Life Which Is Sacrificed.

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

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

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.

The Witch Doctor Succeeds For The Same Reason All The Rest Of Us Succeed. Each Patient Carries His Or Her Own Doctor Inside Him Or Her. They Come To Us Not Knowing That Truth. We Are At Our Best When We Give The Doctor Who Resides Within Each Patient A Chance To Go To Work.

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.

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.

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.

Ethics Is Nothing Else Than Reverence For Life.

Reverence For Life

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.

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

Man's Ethics Must Not End With Man, But Should Extend To The Universe. He Must Regain The Consciousness Of The Great Chain Of Life From Which He Cannot Be Separated.

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

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

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.

Only When An Ideal Of Peace Is Born In The Minds Of The Peoples Will The Institutions Set Up To Maintain This Peace Effectively Fulfill The Function Expected Of Them.

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.

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

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

What The Activity Of This Disposition Of Ours Means In The Evolution Of The World, We Do Not Know. Nor Can We Regulate This Activity From Outside; We Must Leave Entirely To Each Individual Its Shaping And Its Extension. From Every Point Of View, Then, World- And Life-affirmation And Ethics Are Non-rational, And We Must Have The Courage To Admit It.

It Is A Man's Sympathy With All Creatures That First Makes Him Truly A Man.

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.

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?

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

The Stronger The Reverence For Natural Life, The Stronger Grows Also That For Spiritual Life.

Reverence For Life

Set A Great Example. Someone May Imitate It.

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.

Only An Ethical Movement Can Rescue Us From Barbarism, And The Ethical Comes Into Existence Only In Individuals.

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.

Example Is Leadership.

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

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

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.

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.

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

We Should All Be Thankful For Those People Who Rekindle The Inner Spirit.

Aim For Service And Success Will Follow!

Thought Is The Strongest Thing We Have. Work Done By True And Profound Thought - That Is A Real Force.

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.

Do Something Wonderful, People May Imitate It.

You Must Not Expect Anything From Others. It's You, Of Yourself, Of Whom You Must Ask A Lot. Only From Oneself Has One The Right To Ask Everything And Anything. This Way It's Up To You - Your Own Choices - What You Get From Others Remains A Present, A Gift.

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.

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. The Roots Of Cruelty, Therefore, Are Not So Much Strong As Widespread. But The Time Must Come When Inhumanity Protected By Custom And Thoughtlessness Will Succumb Before Humanity Championed By Thought. Let Us Work That This Time May Come.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

All Art Speaks In Signs And Symbols. No One Can Explain How It Happens That The Artist Can Waken To Life In Us The Existence That He Has Seen And Lives Through. No Artistic Speech Is The Adequate Expression Of What It Represents; Its Vital Force Comes From What Is Unspoken In 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.

It's Supposed To Be A Secret, But I'll Tell You Anyway. We Doctors Do Nothing. We Only Help. And Encourage The Doctor Within.

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

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

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.

All Work That Is Worth Anything Is Done In Faith.

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

Ethics Is The Activity Of Man Directed To Secure The Inner Perfection Of His Own Personality.

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

The Great Secret Of Success Is To Go Through Life As A Person Who Never Gets Used Up. That Is Possible For Those Who Never Argue And Strive With People And Facts, But In All Experience Retires Upon Themselves, And Look For The Ultimate Cause Of Things In Themselves.

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

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.

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.

Ethics Is In Its Unqualified Form Extended Responsibility With Regard To Everything That Has Life.

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.

Reverence For Life Is The Highest Court Of Appeal.

Life Becomes Harder For Us When We Live For Others, But It Also Becomes Richer And Happier.

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.

It Is Not Always Granted To The Sower To See The Harvest.

Love ... Is A Living Reality.

It Is The Fate Of Every Truth To Be An Object Of Ridicule When It Is First Acclaimed.

Rational Thinking Which Is Free From Assumptions Ends Therefore In Mysticism. To Relate Oneself In The Spirit Of Reverence For Life To The Multiform Manifestations Of The Will-to-live Which Together Constitute The World Is Ethical Mysticism. All Profound World-view Is Mysticism, The Essence Of Which Is Just This: That Out Of My Unsophisticated And Naïve Existence In The World There Comes, As A Result Of Thought About Self And The World, Spiritual Self-devotion To The Mysterious Infinite Will Which Is Continuously Manifested In The Universe.

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.

If You Are Called Upon To Play A Church Service, It Is A Greater Honor Than If You Were To Play A Concert On The Finest Organ In The World... Thank God Each Time When You Are Privileged To Sit Before The Organ Console And Assist In The Worship Of The Almighty.

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

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.

Reverence For Life Affords Me My Fundamental Principle Of Morality.

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 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.

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.

Today It Is Considered As Exaggeration To Proclaim Constant Respect For Every Form Of Life As Being The Serious Demand Of A Rational Ethic. But The Time Is Coming When People Will Be Amazed That The Human Race Existed So Long Before It Recognized That Thoughtless Injury To Life Is Incompatible With Real Ethics. Ethics Is In Its Unqualified Form Extended Responsibility To Everything That Has Life.

There Are Two Means Of Refuge From The Miseries Of Life: Music And Cats.

Thought Is The Strongest Thing We Have.

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.

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.

A Heavy Guilt Rests Upon Us For What The Whites Of All Nations Have Done To The Colored Peoples. When We Do Good To Them, It Is Not Benevolence--it Is Atonement.

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.

A Man Is Ethical Only When Life, As Such, Is Sacred To Him.

No Ray Of Sunlight Is Ever Lost, But The Green Which It Awakes Into Existence Needs Time To Sprout, And It Is Not Always Granted To The Sower To See The Harvest. All Work That Is Worth Anything Is Done In Faith.

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

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.

Soldiers' Graves Are The Greatest Preachers Of Peace.

We Wander Through This Life Together In A Semi-darkness In Which None Of Us Can Distinguish Exactly The Features Of His Neighbour. Only From Time To Time, Through Some Experience That We Have Of Our Companion, Or Through Some Remark That He Passes, He Stands For A Moment Close To Us, As Though Illuminated By A Flash Of Lightning. Then We See Him As He Really Is.

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.'

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.

The Thinking Man Must Oppose All Cruel Customs No Matter How Deeply Rooted In Tradition Or Surrounded By A Halo. We Need A Boundless Ethics Which Will Include The Animals Also. My Life Is Full Of Meaning To Me. The Life Around Me Must Be Full Of Significance To It. If I Want Others To Respect My Life, Then I Must Respect The Other Life I See However Strange It May Be To Mine. Ethics In Our Western World Has Hitherto Been Largely Limited To The Relation Of Man To Man... But That Is A Limited Ethics.

Jesus As A Concrete Historical Personality Remains A Stranger To Our Time, But His Spirit, Which Lies Hidden In His Words, Is Known In Simplicity, And Its Influence Is Direct.

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

My Life Is My Argument.

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

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Alfred P. Sloan

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

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