Albert Schweitzer idézet

oldal 4

„Néha kialszik a fényünk, de egy másik emberrel való találkozás, ismét azonnal lángra gyújtja.”

„Az élet nyomorúsága előtt kétféle menedékhely létezik: a zene és a macskák.”

„Ha szeretsz valakit vagy valamit, akkor engedd szabadon. Ha visszatér hozzád, akkor a tiéd, ha nem, akkor soha nem is volt a tiéd.”

„Amíg nem terjeszti ki együttérzésének körét minden élőlényre, az ember maga sem találja meg a békét.”

„A siker nem a boldogság kulcsa. A boldogság a siker kulcsa. Ha szereted, amit csinálsz, akkor sikeres leszel.”

„Bárhová fordul az ember, mindenhol talál valakit, akinek szüksége van rá.”

„Az optimista az a személy, aki mindenhol zöld fényt lát, míg a pesszimista csak a piros fényt látja... Az igazán bölcs ember színvak.”

„Mindannyiunknak hálásnak kellene lennünk azokért az emberekért, akik újraélesztik a belső szellemünket.”

„Néha kialszik bennünk a fény, de aztán ismét felgyúl, ha találkozunk egy másik emberi lénnyel. Mindannyian óriási hálával tartozunk azoknak, akik képesek újból felgyújtani ezt a belső fényt.”

„Embernek lenni nehéz, de másnak lenni nem érdemes.”

„Az ember csak akkor erkölcsös, ha magát az életet tartja szentnek, a növényekét és az állatokét épp úgy, mint az emberét, és igyekszik a lehetőségekhez képest segítséget nyújtani minden szükséget szenvedő életnek.”

„Az élet igenlése az a szellemi cselekedet, amely által az ember abbahagyja azt, hogy csak úgy éljen a világban, tisztelettel kezdi saját életének szentelni magát, hogy ezzel a valódi értékére emelje azt.”

„A világ jövője nem attól függ, hogy mennyire értjük, hanem, hogy mennyire tiszteljük az életet.”

„A mai ember egész életében olyan hatásoknak van kitéve, amelyek megrendítik a saját gondolkodásába vetett bizalmát. A szellemi függőségre ösztönzés, amelynek alá kell vetnie magát, megnyilvánul mindenben, amit hall, vagy olvas. (…) Ahol megszűnik az a meggyőződés, hogy az ember önálló gondolkodás útján jut el az igazsághoz, oda beférkőzik a szkepticizmus.”

„A fiatalság mércéje nem az életkor, hanem a szellem és a lélek állapota: az akarat- és képzelőerő, az érzelmek intenzitása, a jókedv és a kalandvágy győzelme a lustaságon.”

„A gondolkodásról való lemondás a szellem csődje.”

„A helyesen értelmezett tudomány kigyógyítja az embert a büszkeségéből, mert megmutatja határait.”

„Olyan fiatal vagy, mint reményeid, olyan öreg, mint a kétségeid. Olyan fiatal, mint önbizalmad, olyan öreg, mint félelmeid. Fiatal, mint a hited, öreg, mint a csüggedésed.”

„Amikor az ember már nem veszi természetesnek a létét, hanem meglátja benne annak misztikusságát, ott kezdődik a gondolat.”

„Egy világnézet csak akkor bizonyul igaznak, ha a léthez és a világhoz fűződő viszonyunkat olyanná alakítja, amely aktív erkölcs vezette, mélyebb emberekké formál bennünket.”

„Minden szellemi és intellektuális dolog fölött, a filozófia és a teológia fölött áll az ember segítőkészsége a másik ember iránt, és az a feladat, hogy az ember az embernek testvére legyen!”

„A nagy titok: úgy járni végig életutunkat, hogy ne kopjunk el. Erre az olyan ember képes, aki nem az embereket és a tényeket veszi számításba, hanem minden élményét önmagára vetíti vissza, és a dolgok végső okát önmagában keresi.”

„Csak akkor öregszel meg, ha már nem szárnyalsz, és hagyod, hogy a pesszimizmus és a cinizmus megdermessze a szívedet.”

„Nem kell egyedül élned a világban, ott van a testvéred.”

„A gondolkodó ember szükségét érzi annak, hogy ugyanolyan tisztelettel adózzék minden rajta kívül álló életakaratnak, mint a magáénak.”

„Sokat vagyunk együtt, mégis elpusztít minket a társas magány.”

„Az élet tisztelete által lelki kapcsolatba lépünk a világgal.”

„A legszebb emlékműved embertársaid szívében áll.”

„Aki az akadályok leküzdéséből erőt merít, az rendelkezik az egyetlen olyan erővel, amely képes legyőzni a megpróbáltatásokat.”

„Soha ne mondd, hogy már nincs semmi szép a világon. Mindig van valami, ami ámulatba ejt egy fa alakjában, egy levél rezdülésében.”

„A példa nem a legfontosabb dolog mások befolyásolásában. Hanem az egyetlen dolog.”

“Only when an ideal of peace is born in the minds of the peoples will the institutions set up to maintain this peace effectively fulfill the function expected of them.”

“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.”

“We do not have a complete and satisfying knowledge of the world. We are reduced to the simple conclusion that everywhere in the world there is life like ourselves and that all life is shrouded in mystery. A true acquaintance with the world consists in being filled with a sense of the mystery of existence and life. This mystery becomes only more mysterious with every advance in scientific research. To be filled with the mystery of life is like that which is called in the language of mysticism the "wise ignorance," an ignorance which is nonetheless knowledge of the essential.”

“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.”

“If rational thought thinks itself out to a conclusion, it arrives at something non-rational which, nevertheless, is a necessity of thought. This is the paradox which dominates our spiritual life. If we try to get on without this non-rational element, there result views of the world and of life which have neither vitality nor value.”

“The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics.”

“I have twice gone fishing with rod and line just because other boys asked me to, but this sport was soon made impossible for me by the treatment of the worms that were put on the hook for bait, and the wrenching of the mouths of the fishes that were caught. I gave it up, and even found courage enough to dissuade other boys from going.”

“From my youth onwards, I have felt sure that all thought which thinks itself out to an issue ends in mysticism. In the stillness of the African jungle I have been able to work out this thought and give it expression.”

“The ethic of Reverence for Life prompts us to keep each other alert to what troubles us and to speak and act dauntlessly together in discharging the responsibility that we feel. It keeps us watching together for opportunities to bring some sort of help to animals in recompense for the great misery that men inflict upon them, and thus for a moment we escape from the incomprehensible horror of existence.”

“The ethic of Reverence for Life is the ethic of Love widened into universality.”

“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.”

“Only at quite rare moments have I felt really glad to be alive. I could not but feel with a sympathy full of regret all the pain that I saw around me, not only that of men but that of the whole creation. From this community of suffering I have never tried to withdraw myself. 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.”

“I was convinced — and I am so still — that the fundamental principles of Christianity have to be proved true by reasoning, and by no other method. Reason, I said to myself, is given us that we may bring everything within the range of its action, even the most exalted ideas of religion. And this certainty filled me with joy.”

“Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.”

“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.”

“World-view is a product of life-view, not vice versa.”

“Thus each successive epoch of theology found its own thoughts in Jesus; that was, indeed, the only way in which it could make Him live. But it was not only each epoch that found its reflection in Jesus; each individual created Him in accordance with his own character. There is no historical task which so reveals a man's true self as the writing of a Life of Jesus.”

“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.”

“Modern Christianity must always reckon with the possibility of having to abandon the historical figure of Jesus. Hence it must not artificially increase his importance by referring all theological knowledge to him and developing a ‘christo-centric’ religion: the Lord may always be a mere element in ‘religion’, but he should never be considered its foundation. (p. 402)”

“Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.”

“The good conscience is an invention of the devil.”

“We came to a tree which was still bare, and on which the birds were singing out gaily in the morning, without any fear of us. Then stooping over like an Indian on the hunt, my companion placed a pebble in the leather of his sling and stretched it. Obeying his peremptory glance I did the same, with frightful twinges of conscience, vowing firmly that I would shoot when he did. At that very moment the church bells began to sound, mingling with the song of the birds in the sunshine. It was the warning bell that came a half-hour before the main bell. For me it was a voice from heaven. I threw the sling down, scaring the birds away, so that they were safe from my companion's sling, and fled home. And ever afterwards when the bells of Holy Week ring out amidst the leafless trees in the sunshine I remember with moving gratitude how they rang into my heart at that time the commandment: Thou shalt not kill.”

“What really matters is that we should all of us realize that we are guilty of inhumanity. The horror of this realization should shake us out of our lethargy so that we can direct our hopes and our intentions to the coming of an era in which war will have no place.”

“Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty, therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come.”

“When in the spring the withered gray of the pastures gives place to green, this is due to the millions of young shoots which sprout up freshly from the old roots. In like manner the revival of thought which is essential for our time can only come through a transformation of the opinions and ideals of the many brought about by individual and universal reflection about the meaning of life and of the world.”

“This dogma had first to be shattered before men could once more go out in quest of the historical Jesus, before they could even grasp the thought of His existence. That the historic Jesus is something different from the Jesus Christ of the doctrine of the Two Natures seems to us now self-evident. We can, at the present day, scarcely imagine the long agony in which the historical view of the life of Jesus came to birth. And even when He was once more recalled to life. He was still, like Lazarus of old, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes — the grave-clothes of the dogma of the Dual Nature.”

“A word in conclusion about the relations between the whites and blacks. What must be the general character of the intercourse between them? Am I to treat the black man as my equal or my inferior? I must show him that I can respect the dignity of human personality in every one, and this attitude in me he must be able to see for himself; but the essential thing is that there shall be a real feeling of brotherliness. How far this is to find complete expression in the sayings and doings of daily life must be settled by circumstances. The negro is a child, and with children nothing can be done without the use of authority. We must, therefore, so arrange the circumstances of daily life that my natural authority can find expression. With regard to the negroes, then, I have coined the formula: "I am your brother, it is true, but your elder brother."”

“The deepest thinking is humble. It is only concerned that the flame of truth which it keeps alive should burn with the strongest and purest heat; it does not trouble about the distance to which its brightness penetrates.”

“We cannot understand what happens in the universe. What is glorious in it is united with what is full of horror. What is full of meaning is united to what is senseless. 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.”