Background Image

...

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.

-Albert Schweitzer

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Thought Cannot Avoid The

Albert Schweitzer

...

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.

Views: 6

Topic

Inspirational Love

More From Albert Schweitzer

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

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

By Ethical Conduct Toward All Creatures, We Enter Into A Spiritual Relationship With The Universe.

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.

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.

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.

Man Is A Clever Animal Who Behaves Like An Imbecile.

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.

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

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

Devotion To God

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.

Preservation Of Life Is The Only True Joy.

Preservation Of Life

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Every Patient Carries His Or Her Own Doctor Inside.

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Man Can Do Only What He Can Do. But If He Does That Each Day He Can Sleep At Night And Do It Again The Next Day.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

The 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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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”).

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.

Animal Protection Is Education To The Humanity.

My Life Is My Argument.

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

Every Patient Carries Her Or His Own Doctor Inside.

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

Your Life Is Something Opaque, Not Transparent, As Long As You Look At It In An Ordinary Human Way. But If You Hold It Up Against The Light Of God's Goodness, It Shines And Turns Transparent, Radiant And Bright. And Then You Ask Yourself In Amazement: Is This Really My Own Life I See Before Me?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

When Man Learns To Respect Even The Smallest Being Of Creation...nobody Has To Teach Him To Love His Fellow Man. Compassion For Animals Is Intimately Connected With Goodness Of Character, And It May Be Confidently Asserted That He Who Is Cruel To Animals Cannot Be A Good Man.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Kindness Works Simply And Perseveringly; It Produces No Strained Relations Which Prejudice Its Working; Strained Relations Which Already Exist It Relaxes. Mistrust And Misunderstanding It Puts To Flight, And It Strengthens Itself By Calling Forth Answering Kindness. Hence It Is The Furthest Reaching And The Most Effective Of All Forces.

Soldiers' Graves Are The Greatest Preachers Of Peace.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

By Respect For Life We Become Religious In A Way That Is Elementary, Profound And Alive. Impart As Much As You Can Of Your Spiritual Being To Those Who Are On The Road With You, And Accept As Something Precious What Comes Back To You From Them. In Everyone's Life, At Some Time, Our Inner Fire Goes Out. It Is Then Burst Into Flame By An Encounter With Another Human Being. We Should All Be Thankful For Those People Who Rekindle The Inner Spirit. - Albert Schweitzer

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

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

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.

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

Mind Your Own Business

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

Sincerity Is The Foundation Of The Spiritual Life.

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

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.'

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Only Through Love Can We Obtain Communion With God.

Communion With God

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

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.

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.

Reverence For Life Is The Highest Court Of Appeal.

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

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

Becoming Who You Are

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

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.'

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.

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.

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

One Person Can And Does Make A Difference.

Making A Difference

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."

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Ethical Existence [is] The Highest Manifestation Of Spirituality.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Inspirational Love

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Thought Is The Strongest Thing We Have.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

No One May Shut His Eyes To Think The Pain, Which Is Therefore Not Visible To Him, Is Non-existent.

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.

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

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

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

There Is No Higher Religion Than Human Service.

Community Service

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Trending Author

Yves Saint Laurent

Vartan Gregorian

Christopher Alexander

Category