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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

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The Willow Which Bends

Albert Schweitzer

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Until He Extends His Circle Of Compassion To Include All Living Things, Man Will Not Himself Find Peace.

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

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.

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

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.

To Work For The Common Good Is The Greatest Creed.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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I Always Think That We Live, Spiritually, By What Others Have Given Us In The Significant Hours Of Our Life. These Significant Hours Do Not Announce Themselves As Coming, But Arrive Unexpected.

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.

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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

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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."

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

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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

Jesus No Doubt Fits His Teaching Into The Late-jewish Messianic Dogma. But He Does Not Think Dogmatically. He Formulates No Doctrine. He Is Far From Judging Any Man's Belief By Reference To Any Standard Of Dogmatic Correctness. Nowhere Does He Demand Of His Hearers That They Shall Sacrifice Thinking To Believing.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Mind Your Own Business

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.

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

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.

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.

Love ... Is A Living Reality.

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.

Every Patient Carries His Or Her Own Doctor Inside.

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.

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.

Within Every Patient There Resides A Doctor, And We As Physicians Are At Our Best When We We Put Our Patients In Touch With The Doctor Inside Themselves.

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.

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.

One Who Gains Strength By Overcoming Obstacles Possesses The Only Strength Which Can Overcome Adversity.

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.

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.

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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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.

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

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

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.

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

One Person Can And Does Make A Difference.

Making A Difference

The Great Enemy Of Morality Is Indifference.

Reincarnation Contains A Most Comforting Explanation Of Reality By Means Of Which Indian Thought Surmounts Difficulties Which Baffle The Thinkers Of Europe.

A Good Example Has Twice The Value Of Good Advice

From Naive Simplicity We Arrive At More Profound Simplicity.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Reverence For Life

Man Is A Clever Animal Who Behaves Like An Imbecile.

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.

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

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.

We Need A Boundless Ethics Which Will Include Animals Also.

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

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.

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.

Late On The Third Day, At The Very Moment When, At Sunset, ..., There Flashed Upon My Mind, Unforeseen And Unsought, The Phrase “ehrfurcht Vor Dem Leben” (“reverence For Life”).

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