The spirit of the universe is at once creative and destructive.. it creates while it destroys and destroys while it creates, and therefore it remains to us a riddle. And we must inevitably resign ourselves to this.
Albert Schweitzer - Spirit - Creative - Destructive - Mystery - Life

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while the pessimist sees only the red stoplight. The truly wise person is colorblind.
Albert Schweitzer - Optimist - Pessimistic - Wisdom

True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness: "I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live."
Albert Schweitzer - Life - Philosophy - Facts - Conscious

The man who has become a thinking being feels a compulsion to give every will-to-live the same reverence for life that he gives to his own. He experiences that other life in his own.
Albert Schweitzer - Life - Philosophy - Thinking - Compassion - Feeling

The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery. Neither knowledge nor hope for the future can be the pivot of our life or determine its direction. It is intended to be solely determined by our allowing ourselves to be gripped by the ethical God, who reveals Himself in us, and by our yielding our will to His.
Albert Schweitzer - Spiritual - Mystery - Philosophy - Facts - Knowledge - Hope - Ethical - God

The mistake made by all previous systems of ethics has been the failure to recognize that life as such is the mysterious value with which they have to deal. All spiritual life meets us within natural life. Reverence for life, therefore, is applied to natural life and spiritual life alike. In the parable of Jesus, the shepherd saves not merely the soul of the lost sheep but the whole animal. The stronger the reverence for natural life, the stronger grows also that for spiritual life.
Albert Schweitzer - Spiritual - Mystery - Life - Philosophy - Mistakes - Failure - Nature - Reverence - Jesus - Soul - Strength

Those who thank God much are the truly wealthy. So our inner happiness depends not on what we experience but on the degree of our gratitude to God, whatever the experience.
Albert Schweitzer - Spiritual - God - Wealthy - Thank You - Happiness - Gratitude - Experience

Profound love demands a deep conception and out of this develops reverence for the mystery of life. It brings us close to all beings, to the poorest and smallest as well as all others.
Albert Schweitzer - Mystery - Life - Compassion - Nature - Reverence - Love

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.
Albert Schweitzer - Life - Compassion - Ethical - Nature

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.
Albert Schweitzer - Life - Philosophy - Happiness - Society

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.
Albert Schweitzer - Life - Inspirational

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 - Life - Ethical - Nature - Attitude - World - Belief

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.
Albert Schweitzer - Good - Help - Challenges

Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.
Albert Schweitzer - Life - Philosophy - Religion - Respect - True