Written By: Erica Anderson
Reviewed Edition: Harper and Row, New York, 1965
No ISBN shown
Hardcover, 176 pages This book is available via the Internet Archive at [IA]. Quotes
Table of Contents
"It is not inappropriate for Schweitzer's life to be thought of in terms of music, a symphony of themes that taken together form a pattern of power and beauty. The themes of his life are many--devotion to truth and reason, a quality of independence, loyalty to ideals and to friends, a sensitivity to the suffering of others and a reverence for all life, a high sense of duty and responsibility, idealism tempered with practicality, a single-minded dedication to chosen ends, a commitment in religious discipleship to follow in the way of Jesus the Nazarene."
[When urged to reject a person in need of medical assistance because he had previously stolen drugs from the hospital]
'What would the Lord Jesus have answered when someone came to Him in pain?' Schweitzer asked. 'Quick, waste no time. Get him to the operating room'
'"Whatsoever you do unto the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me." This is my image of the Kingdom of God--not the Apocalypse--only this is the right meaning.'
"For [Albert Schweitzer], it is the direct personal encounter that is most real, and like his friend Martin Buber he sees in the confrontation of persons a practical philosophy. So important to him is the directness of encounter that he is uneasy with the telephone and telegraph because they seem to him a barrier separating man from man: 'I cannot speak to someone I cannot see.' Even in travel, he prefers a mode of transportation that makes it possible to meet people, but only late in life has he had the opportunity to travel by car--friends have offered to drive him in Europe from one engagement to another. On such trips he never fails to stop to pick up a hitchhiker or to offer a lift to burdened travelers. 'One has a much more intimate relationship to the landscape and to people when one goes by car.'"
[Schweitzer answering questions from audience members following a talk at a factory in Paris]
Question Do you not think that a profound disequilibrium exists between science, the progress which strides on like a giant, and man, whose progress toward moral understanding proceeds at the pace of a tortoise?
A.S. Nonsense, science pursues its own way, and we cannot stop it. It has given us immense benefits; it has put us into great danger. But we can escape this danger if we find men capable of surmounting all the circumstances of life and the difficulties of our time. It is only through the spirit that we can conquer. And I admit to you, I believe in man. My long life has convinced me that we are all thinking beings, and the question is only whether thought does dare us to reach to the depth of our being. There we will find that we are entirely different from what we are when we do not search our own depths. All thinking being comes to the knowledge that thought is the road which leads toward higher ethics of the spirit. It is my faith. It is that which sustains me in my life.
[Albert Schweitzer in Brussels, 1959] "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. We reject the idea that man is 'master of other creatures,' 'lord' above all others. We bow to reality. We no longer say that there are senseless existences with which we can deal as we please. We recognize that all existence is a mystery, like our own existence."
Table of Contents of The Schweitzer Album
Acknowledgements
Bibliographical Note
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