“Everyone must work to live, but the purpose of life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others. Only then have we ourselves become true human beings.”

Last update Sept. 28, 2023. History

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Albert Schweitzer 126
French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosoph… 1875–1965

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Albert Schweitzer photo

“The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher

Variant: The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.

Joyce Meyer photo
Käthe Kollwitz photo

“It is all right with me that my work serves a purpose. I want to have an effect on my time, in which human beings are so confused and in need of help.”

Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) German artist

Quoted in Käthe Kollwitz: Graphics, Posters, Drawings (1981) by Renate Hinz
Other Quotes
Context: My work is not, of course, pure art in the sense that Schmidt-Rottluff's is, but it is art nonetheless... It is all right with me that my work serves a purpose. I want to have an effect on my time, in which human beings are so confused and in need of help.

Kate Bornstein photo

“If we don't show ourselves the same amount of compassion we show others, we'll eventually come to resent the compassion we have for others. I think there's little enough compassion in the world right now, so we need to grow our own to compensate for that.”

Kate Bornstein (1948) American author, playwright, performance artist, and gender theorist

My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity (2013), p. 6

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“If we wish to be true to ourselves, — if we wish to benefit our fellow-men — if we wish to live honorable lives — we will give to every other human being every right that we claim for ourselves.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Context: Gentlemen, you can never make me believe — no statute can ever convince me, that there is any infinite Being in this universe who hates an honest man. It is impossible to satisfy me that there is any God, or can be any God, who holds in abhorrence a soul that has the courage to express his thought. Neither can the whole world convince me that any man should be punished, either in this world or in the next, for being candid with his fellow-men. If you send men to the penitentiary for speaking their thoughts, for endeavoring to enlighten their fellows, then the penitentiary will become a place of honor, and the victim will step from it — not stained, not disgraced, but clad in robes of glory.
Let us take one more step.
What is holy, what is sacred? I reply that human happiness is holy, human rights are holy. The body and soul of man — these are sacred. The liberty of man is of far more importance than any book; the rights of man, more sacred than any religion — than any Scriptures, whether inspired or not.
What we want is the truth, and does any one suppose that all of the truth is confined in one book — that the mysteries of the whole world are explained by one volume?
All that is — all that conveys information to man — all that has been produced by the past — all that now exists — should be considered by an intelligent man. All the known truths of this world — all the philosophy, all the poems, all the pictures, all the statues, all the entrancing music — the prattle of babes, the lullaby of mothers, the words of honest men, the trumpet calls to duty — all these make up the bible of the world — everything that is noble and true and free, you will find in this great book.
If we wish to be true to ourselves, — if we wish to benefit our fellow-men — if we wish to live honorable lives — we will give to every other human being every right that we claim for ourselves.

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Jimmy Carter photo

“To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

We will not behave in foreign places so as to violate our rules and standards here at home, for we know that the trust which our Nation earns is essential to our strength.
Presidency (1977–1981), Inaugural Address (1977)

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