Albert Schweitzer
(1875-1965)

Alsatian Physician, Musician,
Nuclear Disarmament Advocate, Humanitarian
1952 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

birthdate: January 14
birthplace:
Kaysersberg, Alsace, Germany

QUOTES

"In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens-- when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men's hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing."

"the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." -- Albert Schweitzer

"A man can do only what a man can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day." -- Albert Schweitzer.

"Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose." -- Albert Schweitzer

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 era in which war will have no place. This hope and this will can have but one aim: to attain, though a change in spirit, that superior reason which will dissuade us from misusing the power at our disposal.

Only when an ideal of peace is born in the minds of the people will the institutions set up to maintain this peace effectively fulfill the function expected of them.

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

"It is not enough to merely exist. It's not enough to say, 'I'm earning enough to live and support my family. I do my work well. I'm a good parent.' That's all very well. But you must do something more. Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every person has to seek in his own way to make his own self more noble and to realize his own true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who have need of a man's help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For, remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too."

You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it's a little thing, do something for which you get not pay but the privilege of doing it.

"Until mankind can extend the circle of his compassion to include all living things, he will never, himself, know peace."

"Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth."

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.

From naive simplicity we arrive at more profound simplicity.

 

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