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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.

-Albert Schweitzer

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Thinking About Death... Produces

Albert Schweitzer

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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.

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More From Albert Schweitzer

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Ideals Are Thoughts. So Long As They Exist Merely As Thoughts, The Power In Them Remains Ineffective.

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

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

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.'

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

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

To Work For The Common Good Is The Greatest Creed.

Community Service

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.

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

Aim For Service And Success Will Follow!

At That Point In Life Where Your Talent Meets The Needs Of The World, That Is Where God Wants You To Be.

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

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.

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.

Reverence For Life Affords Me My Fundamental Principle Of Morality.

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

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.

Let Your Life Be Your Argument.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 True Worth Of A Man Is Not To Be Found In Man Himself, But In The Colours And Textures That Come Alive In Others.

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

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

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.

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

An Optimist Is A Person Who Sees A Green Light Everywhere, While A Pessimist Sees Only The Red Stoplight... The Truly Wise Person Is Colorblind.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

...try To Tell The People Of America About Dr. Gerson's Merits And ...results...i Wish You The Best In Your Difficult Task.

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

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

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

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

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”).

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

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.

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.

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.

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

There Is Nothing More Negative Than The Result Of The Critical Study Of The Life Of Jesus. The Jesus Of Nazareth Who Came Forward Publicly As The Messiah, Who Preached The Kingdom Of God, Who Founded The Kingdom Of Heaven Upon Earth, And Died To Give His Work Its Final Consecration, Never Had Any Existence. He Is A Figure Designed By Rationalism, Endowed With Life By Liberalism, And Clothed By Modern Theology In An Historical Garb.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Preservation Of Life Is The Only True Joy.

Preservation Of Life

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

The Doctor Of The Future Will Be Oneself.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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 Can Do No Other Than Be Reverent Before Everything That Is Called Life. I Can Do No Other Than To Have Compassion For All That Is Called Life. That Is The Beginning And The Foundation Of All Ethics.

Reverence For Life

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.

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

Man Is A Clever Animal Who Behaves Like An Imbecile.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Example Is Leadership.

In The Hopes Of Reaching The Moon Men Fail To See The Flowers That Blossom At Their Feet.

Constant Kindness Can Accomplish Much.

I Decided That I Would Make My Life My Argument.

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

Difficult Things

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.

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.

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.

Every Patient Carries Her Or His Own Doctor Inside.

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

The Quiet Conscience Is An Invention Of The Devil.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

The Path Of Awakening Is Not About Becoming Who You Are. Rather It Is About Unbecoming Who You Are Not.

Becoming Who You Are

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.

My Life Is My Argument.

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.

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.

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

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

Reverence For Life

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The Future Of Civilization Depends On Our Overcoming The Meaninglessness And Hopelessness Which Characterize The Thoughts And Convictions Of Men Today, And Reaching A State Of Fresh Hope And Fresh Determination.

Renunciation Of Thinking Is A Declaration Of Spiritual Bankruptcy.

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

Every Patient Carries His Or Her Own Doctor Inside.

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.

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.

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 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?

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

You Don't Live In A World All Alone. Your Brothers Are Here Too.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Reverence For Life

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.

You Ask Me For A Motto. Here It Is: Service.

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

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.

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.

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

Love ... Is A Living Reality.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Mind Your Own Business

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

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.

One Person Can And Does Make A Difference.

Making A Difference

Sincerity Is The Foundation Of The Spiritual Life.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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Frederick Buechner

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