As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.

—Albert Schweitzer

reality gratitude existence thought

About Albert Schweitzer

Portrait of Albert Schweitzer

Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (German: [ˈalbɛʁt ˈʃvaɪtsɐ] ; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German polymath from Alsace. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. As a Lutheran minister, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of the historical Jesus as depicted by the...

More quotations from Albert Schweitzer

Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.

—Albert Schweitzer

A man does not have to be an angel in order to be a saint.

—Albert Schweitzer

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

—Albert Schweitzer

Just as the water of the streams we see is small in amount compared to that which flows underground, so the idealism which becomes visible is small in amount compared with what men and women bear locked in their hearts.… To unbind what is bound, to bring the underground waters to the surface: mankind is waiting and longing for such as can do that.

—Albert Schweitzer

heart mankind idealism longing water men and women

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

—Albert Schweitzer

More quotations tagged with “thought”

The greatest danger that threatens us is neither heterodox thought nor orthodox thought, but the absence of thought.

—Henry Steele Commager in Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent

danger thought diversity absent-mindedness

I have not spoken to him for ten years, but I thought of him every single day.

—Ruth Ware in Dark Wood

time memory thought

There are glimpses of heaven to us in every act, or thought, or word, that raises us above ourselves.

—Robert Quillen

How many scholars are there whose single book or article has generated more intellectual energy than the collected works of other, quantitatively far more 'productive,' scholars? The commensurating device known as the 'tape measure' may tell us that a Vermeer interior and a cow plop are both twenty inches across; there, however, the similarity ends.

—James C. Scott in Two Cheers for Anarchism

art thought work creativity originality

It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled sea of thought.

—John Kenneth Galbraith

thought nonsense

History

21 Jul 2013 Added