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.
(For all that Lives).
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 we are all united to all this life.
(For all that Lives)
The most valuable knowledge we can have is how to deal with disappointments. (Memoirs of Childhood and Youth)
In the hope of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.
Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or
philosophy. (Animals, Nature, and Albert Schweitzer)
A farmer who has mowed down a thousand flowers in his meadow to feed his cows should take care that on his way home he does not, in wanton pastime, switch off the head of a single flower growing at the edge of the road, for in so doing he injures life without being forced to do so by necessity.
(For all that Lives)
Don't let your hearts grow numb. Stay alert. It is your soul which matters. (Reverence for Live)
No one has ever come back from the other world. I can't console you, but one thing I can tell you, as long as my ideas are alive I will be alive.
We live in a dark frightening age. One reason for this is the part played by the ideology of inhumanity in our time.
(The Philosophy of Civilization)
Because I have confidence in the power of Truth and of the spirit, I believe in the future of mankind.
(Life and Thought)
When we observe contemporary society one thing strikes us. We debate but make no progress. Why? Because as people we do not yet trust each other.
Man has lost the capacity to foresee and forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.
(Animals, Nature, and Albert Schweitzer)
In an atomic war there would be neither conqueror or vanquished. During such a bombardment both sides would suffer the same fate. A continuous destruction would take place and no armistice nor peace proposals would bring it to an end.
(Peace or Atomic War)
It will ever remain incomprehensible that our generation, which has shown itself so great by its achievements in discovery and invention, could fall so low spiritually as to give up thinking.
(Out of my Life and Thoughts, p257)
Renunciation of thinking is a declaration of spiritual bankruptcy. (Out of my Life and Thoughts, p258)
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. (Ethics, p. 16)
To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic. (Life and Thoughts, p 279)
The highest proof of the Spirit is love. Love is the eternal thing which can already on earth possess as it really is.
(Life and Thoughts, p. 249)
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.
(Life and Thoughts, p. 112)
There are no heroes of action: only heroes of renunciation and suffering. (Life and Thoughts, p. 111)
Through the power which we win over the forces of nature we get also a gruesome kind of power over our fellow human beings.
(Ethics, p. 286)
Let me give you one definition of ethics: It is good to maintain life and to further life; it is bad to damage and destroy Life. And this ethic, profound, universal, has the significance of a religion. It is religion.
(Religion, p. 1521)
Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality.
(Decay, p. 94)