Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Albert Schweitzer (French Theologian)

Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) was an Alsatian-German religious philosopher, musicologist, and medical missionary in Africa. He devoted the first thirty years of his life to learning and music, and the rest to the service of others. He was awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.

Born in Kaysersberg, Alsace, now in France, but then under German rule, Schweitzer studied the history of the organ and its construction. He produced his most noteworthy writings on music between 1905 and 1913, while also a practicing theologian and working as a lecturer at Strasbourg.

Schweitzer was an authority on the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and a noted performer of Bach’s organ music. He published an interpretation of Bach’s music in J. S. Bach, Le Musicien-Poète (1905; J.S. Bach, the Poet Musician.)

Schweitzer’s main contribution to theology was his book Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung (1906; The Quest for the Historical Jesus,) which emphasized the significance of understanding Jesus within the context of the Jewish apocalyptic philosophy of his day. His other philosophical works include Kant’s Philosophy of Religion (1899,) Philosophy of Civilization (1923,) and Aus Mein em Leben und Denken (1931; Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography.)

In 1904, Schweitzer chanced upon an article in the Paris Missionary Society’s paper calling for doctors in Africa. Nine years later, he qualified as a physician with a specialty in surgery and tropical diseases, and went as a missionary to Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa, now Gabon. There he established the Schweitzer Hospital and lived there for the rest of his life, providing extraordinary medical care for the natives.

Schweitzer’s later works include Afrikanische Geschichten (1936; From My African Notebook,) and Reverence for Life (tr. 1969.) The phrase “Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben” (“reverence for life”) expressed Schweitzer’spersonal philosophy—that “no person must ever harm or destroy life unless absolutely necessary.”

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Albert Schweitzer

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Compassion

Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Sacrifice

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.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Goodness, Living

Be faithful to your love and you mill be recompensed beyond measure.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Love

The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Success & Failure, Success

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
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Compassion

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. The way in which power works is a mystery.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Life

It is a man’s sympathy with all creatures that truly makes him a man. Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man himself will not find peace.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Kindness, Compassion

What really matters is that we should all of us realize that we are guilty of inhumanity. The horror of this realization should shake 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.
—Albert Schweitzer

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.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Happiness, Helpfulness, Kindness, Service, Destiny, Mentoring, Meaning, Purpose, Goodwill

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.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Spirit, Spirituality

As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Knowledge, Learning

Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Animals

The purpose of human life is to serve and show compassion and the will to help others.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Kindness, Compassion

Example is not the main thing in influencing others—it’s the only thing.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Role models, Leadership, Example, Inspiration

The thinking man 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, even the lowliest creature; to do so is to renounce our manhood and shoulder a guilt which nothing justifies.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Guilt

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.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Kindness

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now—always.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Truth

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 human spirit.
—Albert Schweitzer

The quiet conscience is an invention of the devil.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Conscience

The future of civilization depends on our overcoming the meaninglessness and hopelessness that characterizes the thoughts of men today.
—Albert Schweitzer

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Goodwill, Living Well, Service, Helpfulness, Giving, Happiness, Kindness

Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Foresight

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?
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Light

Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Creation, Evil

Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Ethics

Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. That 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.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Ethics, Morality

Man has become a superman … because he not only disposes of innate, physical forces, but because he is in command … of latent 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.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Man

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Success & Failure, Strength, Success, Happiness, Society

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.
—Albert Schweitzer
Topics: Spirituality, Spirit

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