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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.

-Albert Schweitzer

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The Witch Doctor Succeeds

Albert Schweitzer

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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.

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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.

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

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.

Compassion, In Which All Ethics Must Take Root, Can Only Attain Its Full Breadth And Depth If It Embraces All Living Creatures And Does Not Limit Itself To Mankind.

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

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.

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

Train Yourself Never To Put Off The Word Or Action For The Expression Of Gratitude.

Thought Is The Strongest Thing We Have.

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.

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.

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

Reverence For Life

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 Harvested Fields Bathed In The Autumn Mist Speak Of God And His Goodness Far More Vividly Than Any Human Lips.

Soldiers' Graves Are The Greatest Preachers Of Peace.

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

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

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

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

Let Us Rejoice In The Truth, Wherever We Find Its Lamp Burning.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

There Is No Higher Religion Than Human Service.

Community Service

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.

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

Only Through Love Can We Obtain Communion With God.

Communion With God

Search And See If There Is Not Some Place Where You May Invest Your Humanity.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Wherever A Man Turns He Can Find Someone Who Needs Him.

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.

The Friend Of Nature Is The Man Who Feels Himself Inwardly United With Everything That Lives In Nature, Who Shares In The Fate Of All Creatures, Helps Them When He Can In Their Pain And Need, And As Far As Possible Avoids Injuring Or Taking Life.

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.

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

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

Reverence For Life

The Awareness That We Are All Human Beings Together Has Become Lost In War And Through Politics.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

All Work That Is Worth Anything Is Done In Faith.

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

Mind Your Own Business

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

Ethical Existence [is] The Highest Manifestation Of Spirituality.

Nature Compels Us To Recognize The Fact Of Mutual Dependence, Each Life Necessarily Helping The Other Lives Who Are Linked To It. In The Very Fibers Of Our Being, We Bear Within Ourselves The Fact Of The Solidarity Of Life.

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.

Ethics Is Nothing Else Than Reverence For Life.

Reverence For 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.

My View Is That We Stand Up For Treating The Animals In A Considerate Way, For Completely Renouncing The Eating Of Meat And Also For Speaking Out Against It. This Is What I Do Myself. And In This Way Many A One Becomes Aware Of A Problem That Was Put Forward So Late.

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

He Who Does Not Reflect His Life Back To God In Gratitude Does Not Know Himself.

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.'

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

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

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

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.

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

All People Are Endowed With The Faculty Of Compassion, And For This Reason Can Develop The Humanitarian Spirit.

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

Ethics, Too, Are Nothing But Reverence For Life. This Is What Gives Me The Fundamental Principle Of Morality, Namely, That Good Consists In Maintaining, Promoting, And Enhancing Life, And That Destroying, Injuring, And Limiting Life Are Evil.

Inspirational Life

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 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.

The Demands Of Jesus Are Difficult Just Because They Require Us To Do Something Extraordinary. At The Same Time He Asks Us To Regard These As Something Usual, Ordinary.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 City Of Truth Cannot Be Built On The Swampy Ground Of Skepticism.

If A Man Loses His Reverence For Any Part Of Life, He Will Lose His Reverence For All Of Life.

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.

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

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

Love ... Is A Living Reality.

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.

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

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

Any Religion Or Philosophy Which Is Not Based On A Respect For Life Is Not A True Religion Or Philosophy.

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.

From Naive Simplicity We Arrive At More Profound Simplicity.

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.

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.

World-view Is A Product Of Life-view, Not Vice Versa.

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

Reverence For Life Is The Highest Court Of Appeal.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

By Having A Reverence For Life, We Enter Into A Spiritual Relation With The World By Practicing Reverence For Life We Become Good, Deep, And Alive.

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.

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

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

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

We Are United With All Life That Is In Nature. Man Can No Longer Live His Life For Himself Alone.

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.

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.

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.

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

Difficult Things

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The Quiet Conscience Is An Invention Of The Devil.

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

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

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.

Every Patient Carries Her Or His Own Doctor Inside.

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.

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.

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

Only Those Who Respect The Personality Of Others Can Be Of Real Use To Them.

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.

I Must Forgive Without Noise Or Fuss.

Knowing Who You Are

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

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

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

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.

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.

I Believe That I Possess This Value: To Serve Jesus. I Am Less At Peace Than If My Goal Would Be To Attain A Professorship And A Good Life, But I Live. And That Gives Me The Tremendous Feeling Of Happiness, As If One Would Hear Music. One Feels Uprooted, Because One Asks, What Lies Ahead, What Decisions Should I Make-but More Alive, Happier Than Those Anchored In Life. To Drift With Released Anchor.

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.

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.

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

One Person Can And Does Make A Difference.

Making A Difference

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.

I Am Conscious That Meat Eatingis Not In Accordance With The Finer Feelings,and I Abstain From It Whenever I Can.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Do Something Good And Someone Might Imitate It.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Even If It Is A Little Thing, Do Something For Those Who Have Need Of Help.

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.

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.

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

There Slowly Grew Up In Me An Unshakable Conviction That We Have No Right To Inflict Suffering And Death On Another Living Creature, Unless There Is Some Unavoidable Necessity For It.

Suffering And Death

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.

We Need A Boundless Ethics Which Will Include Animals Also.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Sincerity Is The Foundation Of The Spiritual Life.

Preservation Of Life Is The Only True Joy.

Preservation Of Life

Affirmation Of The World, Which Means Affirmation Of The Will-to-live That Manifests Itself Around Me, Is Only Possible If I Devote Myself To Other Life.

It Doesn't Matter If An Animal Can Reason. It Matters Only That It Is Capable Of Suffering And That Is Why I Consider It My Neighbor.

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.

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

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