69 quotes
Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.
Letter to a Japanese Animal Welfare Society (1961)
The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery.
It belongs to the nature of mysticism that it is timeless and appeals to no other authority than that of the truth which it carries within it.
Indian Thought And Its Development (1936)
Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it.
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."
Kulturphilosophie (1923)
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.
Out of My Life and Thought : An Autobiography (1933)
The ethic of Reverence for Life is the ethic of Love widened into universality.
Out of My Life and Thought : An Autobiography (1933)
Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now — always, and indeed then most truly when it seems most unsuitable to actual circumstances.
On the Edge of the Primeval Forest (1922)
Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility to everything that has life.
Kulturphilosophie (1923)
Many a truth has lain unnoticed for a long time, ignored simply because no one perceived its potential for becoming reality.
The Problem of Peace (1954)
The ethical ideas on which civilization rests have been wandering about the world, poverty-stricken and homeless.
Kulturphilosophie (1923)
What has been presented as Christianity during these nineteen centuries is only a beginning, full of mistakes, not full blown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus.
Out of My Life and Thought : An Autobiography (1933)
Every start upon an untrodden path is a venture which only in unusual circumstances looks sensible and likely to be successful.
Out of My Life and Thought : An Autobiography (1933)
The only way out of today's misery is for people to become worthy of each other's trust.
Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.
Kulturphilosophie (1923)
If I save an insect from a puddle, life has devoted itself to life, and the division of life against itself is ended.
The Philosophy of Civilisation: Civilisation and Ethics (1947)
Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
Kulturphilosophie (1923)
To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.
Out of My Life and Thought : An Autobiography (1933)
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.
Kulturphilosophie (1923)
The last fact which knowledge can discover is that the world is a manifestation, and in every way a puzzling manifestation, of the universal will to live.
Kulturphilosophie (1923)