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.
— Albert Schweitzer
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.
Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.
Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.
My life is my argument.
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.
A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.
Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.
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.
Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always.
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.
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.
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.
Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
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.
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.
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.
The highest proof of the spirit is love. Love the eternal thing which can already on earth possess as it really is.
By respect for life we become religious in a way that is elementary, profound and alive.
Do something for somebody everyday for which you do not get paid.
Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.
The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.
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.
Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.
Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.
If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.
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.
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.
Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.
Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life it is bad to damage and destroy life.
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.
Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.
Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.
The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.
We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.
Example is leadership.
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
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.
We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.
A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.
There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.
Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.
The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.
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.
Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.
Serious illness doesn't bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.
