Albert Schweitzer - Out of My Life and Thought (1931)

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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.

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 to live.

Albert Schweitzer
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.

Albert Schweitzer
Every start upon an untrodden path is a venture which only in unusual circumstances looks sensible and likely to be successful.

Albert Schweitzer
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.

Albert Schweitzer
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.

Albert Schweitzer
Because I have confidence in the power of truth, and of the spirit, I have confidence in the future of mankind.

Albert Schweitzer
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.

Albert Schweitzer
The ethic of Reverence for Life is the ethic of Love widened into universality.

Albert Schweitzer
Jesus no doubt fits his teaching into the late-Jewish messianic dogma. But he does not think dogmatically. He formulates no doctrine. He is far from judging any man's belief by reference to any standard of dogmatic correctness. Nowhere does he demand of his hearers that they shall sacrifice thinking to believing.

Albert Schweitzer
Our age is bent on trying to make the barren tree of skepticism fruitful by tying the fruits of truth on its branches.

Albert Schweitzer
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.

Albert Schweitzer
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.

Albert Schweitzer
The city of truth cannot be built on the swampy ground of skepticism.

Albert Schweitzer
Renunciation of thinking is a declaration of spiritual bankruptcy.

Albert Schweitzer