Albert Schweitzer Quotes

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.

Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility with regard to everything that has life.

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.

If once we admit, be it for a single hour or in a single instance, that there can be anything more important than compassion for a fellow human being, then there is no crime against man that we cannot commit with an easy conscience.

I don't feel there is any spiritual or metaphysical justification for turning our backs on human suffering.

What could be more unjust than hurting an animal or a child? When you've been gifted dominion over something, that responsibility is real.

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

In life and art, there are distinctions to be made between what an act of cruelty consists of.

My most firmly held value is what Albert Schweitzer termed 'reverence for life.' I take this seriously; many would say that because I extend it to nonhumans, I take it too far.

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.

Whose rights will we acknowledge? Whose human dignity will we respect? For whose well-being will we, as a people, assume responsibility?

Judaism, I would argue, does demand love for our fellow human beings, but only to an extent. 'Hate' is not always synonymous with the terribly sinful.

I know of only one duty, and that is to love.

Morality and values depend on the existence of conscious minds - and specifically on the fact that such minds can experience various forms of well-being and suffering in this universe.

It is straightforward for me to be ethical, responsible, and kind-hearted because I have the resources to support that.

Fear and pain and suffering is not OK for any being to feel intentionally at the hands of us.

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

My parents taught me to approach the world critically, but also to approach it with a sense of responsibility.

I am convinced that everyone can develop a good heart and sense of responsibility with or without religion.

Growing up a good person, it's a lot harder than you'd think.

How we take care of our animals is a very good indicator of how we are doing as a society. It is symbolic of how, as human beings, we go about treating each other.

Why wouldn't I help? What good reason do I have as a human being with power and a sense of empathy and morality, why wouldn't I do something?

I find it difficult to feel responsible for the suffering of others. That's why I find war so hard to bear. It's the same with animals: I feel the less harm I do, the lighter my heart. I love a light heart. And when I know I'm causing suffering, I feel the heaviness of it. It's a physical pain. So it's self-interest that I don't want to cause harm.

The healing of a nation is a slow process that requires patience. It begins with truth telling, the confession of wrong-doing, the genuine respect for forgiveness and the willingness to accept the consequences of one's actions.