Organist Quotes

“The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo. We need a boundless ethics which will include the animals also. My life is full of meaning to me. The life around me must be full of significance to it. If I want others to respect my life, then I must respect the other life I see however strange it may be to mine. Ethics in our western world has hitherto been largely limited to the relation of man to man... but that is a limited ethics.”

“Most men are scantily nourished on a modicum of happiness and a number of empty thoughts which life lays on their plates. They are kept in the road of life through stern necessity by elemental duties which they cannot avoid.”

“Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil. Affirmation of the world - that is affirmation of the will to live, which appears in phenomenal forms all around me - is only possible for me in that I give myself out for other 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.”

“The only thing of importance, when we depart, will be the traces of love we have left behind.”

“A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.”

“Where principles and heart stand in conflict with each other, let us make the law of the spirit free from the law of principles.”

“Animal protection is education to the humanity.”

“In case my life should end with the cannibals, I hope they will write on my tombstone, 'We have eaten Dr. Schweitzer. He was good to the end.'”

“Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moments, and know EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON.”

“Love . . . includes fellowship in suffering, in joy and in effort.”

“All people are endowed with the faculty of compassion, and for this reason can develop the humanitarian spirit.”

“Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life it is bad to damage and destroy life.”

“That's my private ant. You're liable to break its legs.”

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”

“No man need fear death, he need fear only that he may die without having known his greatest power: the power of his free will to give his life for others”

“Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always.”

“I must forgive without noise or fuss.”

“I used to suffer particularly because the poor animals must endure so much pain and want. The sight of an old, limping horse being dragged along by one man while another man struck him witha stick he was being driven to the Colmar slaughterhouse - haunted me for weeks.”

“Do something for somebody everyday for which you do not get paid.”

“An idea is, in the end, always stronger than circumstances.”

“Not only is example the best way to teach, it is the only way.”

“When we observe contemporary society one thing strikes us. We debate but make no progress. Why? Because as peoples we do not yet trust each other.”

“Ideals are thoughts. So long as they exist merely as thoughts, the power in them remains ineffective.”

“Every start on an untrodden path is a venture which only in unusual circumstances looks sensible and likely to succeed.”