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I cannot help but feel the suffering all around me, not only of humanity but of the whole of creation. I have never tried to withdraw myself from this community of suffering. It seemed to me a matter of course that we should all take our share of the burden of pain which lies upon the world.

— Albert Schweitzer Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography (1931)

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Philosophy

More quotes by Albert Schweitzer

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)

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No
And pressing forward honor reality.

Martin Buber Power and Love (1926)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Albert Schweitzer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.