Frases de Albert Schweitzer

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“Dar o exemplo não é a melhor maneira de influenciar os outros - é a única.”

“A tragédia do homem é o que morre dentro dele enquanto ele ainda está vivo.”

“Assim como o sol derrete o gelo, a gentileza evapora mal entendidos, desconfianças e hostilidade.”

“O erro da ética até o momento tem sido a crença de que só se deva aplicá-la em relação aos homens.”

“O sucesso não é a chave para a felicidade. A felicidade é a chave para o sucesso.”

“É destino de toda verdade ser objeto de ridículo quando exposta pela primeira vez. Era considerado idiotice se supor que homens negros eram realmente seres humanos e tinham que ser tratados com tal. O que uma vez foi considerado estupidez foi reconhecido como verdade. Hoje em dia é considerado exagero se proclamar constantemente o respeito por cada forma de vida, como sendo uma séria exigência de uma ética racional. Mas virá o dia em que as pessoas ficarão espantadas com o fato de que a raça humana existiu por tanto tempo antes de reconhecer que lesar uma vida irrefletidamente é incompatível com a verdadeira ética. Ética é, sem ressalvas, responsabilidade por tudo o que tem vida.”

“O mundo tornou-se perigoso, porque os homens aprenderam a dominar a natureza antes de se dominarem a si mesmos.”

“A tragédia da vida é o que morre dentro do homem enquanto ele vive.”

“Vivemos em uma época perigosa — o homem domina a natureza antes que tenha aprendido a dominar a si mesmo.”

“Muito pouco da grande crueldade mostrada pelos homens pode ser atribuída realmente a um instinto cruel. A maior parte dela é resultado da falta de reflexão ou de hábitos herdados.”

“Com vinte anos todos têm o rosto que Deus lhes deu; com quarenta, o rosto que lhes deu a vida; e com sessenta, o rosto que merecem.”

“Um homem é verdadeiramente ético apenas quando obedece sua compulsão para ajudar toda a vida que ele é capaz de assistir, e evita ferir toda a coisa que vive”

“Do mesmo modo que a onda não pode existir para si mesma, mas como parte da superfície elevada do oceano, assim eu nunca devo viver minha vida apenas para si mesma, mas sempre interagindo com o que ocorre ao redor de mim.”

“O salgueiro que se curva à tempestade frequentemente escapa melhor que o carvalho que resiste a ela; e assim em grandes calamidades, algumas vezes acontece de espíritos frívolos e levianos recuperarem sua elasticidade e presença de espírito mais rapidamente do que aqueles com caráter mais nobre.”

“A bondade constante pode realizar muito. Assim como o sol derrete o gelo, a bondade faz com que o desentendimento, a desconfiança e a hostilidade evaporem.”

“Não há heróis da acção; só heróis da renúncia e do sofrimento.”

“A nossa civilização está condenada porque se desenvolveu com mais vigor materialmente do que espiritualmente. O seu equilíbrio foi destruído.”

“Eu não sei qual será o seu destino, mas uma coisa eu sei: os únicos entre vocês que serão realmente felizes são aqueles que procuraram e encontraram como servir.”

“Para nós os grandes homens não são aqueles que resolveram os problemas, mas aqueles que os descobriram.”

“Não devemos contentar-nos em falar do amor para com o próximo, mas em praticá-lo.”

“Os únicos homens verdadeiramente felizes são os que buscam uma maneira de serem úteis aos outros.”

“Na medida em que vamos adquirindo mais conhecimento, as coisas se tornam menos compreensíveis e mais misteriosas.”

“Só são verdadeiramente felizes aqueles que procuram ser úteis aos outros.”

“Os anos enrugam a pele, mas renunciar ao entusiasmo faz enrugar a alma.”

“A quem o sofrimento pessoal é poupado, deve sentir-se chamado a diminuir o sofrimento dos outros.”

“O heavenly Father,
protect and bless all things
that have breath: guard them
from all evil and let them sleep in peace.”

“Seek always to do some good, somewhere… Even if it's a little thing, so something for those that need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing 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."”

“The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live for himself alone. We realize that all life is valuable, and that we are united to all this life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship to the universe.”

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

“Wherever you turn, you can find someone who needs you. Even if it is a little thing, do something for which there is no pay but the privilege of doing it. Remember, you don't live in a world all of your own.”

“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.”

“The doctor of the future will be oneself.”

“No ray of sunshine is ever lost but the green that it awakens takes time to sprout, and it is not always given the sower to see the harvest.”

“Soldiers' graves are the greatest preachers of peace.”

“If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.”

“The demands of Jesus are difficult because they require us to do something extraordinary. At the same time He asks us to regard these [acts of goodness] as something usual, ordinary.”

“I am life which wants to live admidst of lives that want to live.”

“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.”

“The man who dares to live his life with death before his eyes, the man who receives life back bit by bit and lives as though it did not belong to him by right but has been bestowed on him as a gift, the man who has such freedom and peace of mind that he has overcome death in his thoughts — such man believes in eternal life because it is already his, it is a present experience, and he already benefits from its peace and joy. He cannot describe this experience in words. He may not be able to conform his view with the traditional picture of it. But one thing he knows for certain: Something within us does not pass away, something goes on living and working wherever the kingdom of the spirit is present. It is already working and living within us, because in our hearts we have been able to reach life by overcoming death.”

“The ideal "Life of Jesus" [biography] at the close of the nineteenth century is the "Life" which Heinrich Julius Holtzmann did not write — but which can be pieced together from his commentary on the synoptic gospels and his new testament theology. It is ideal because, for one thing, it is unwritten, and arises only in the idea of the reader by the aid of his own imagination, and, for another, because it is traced only in the most general outline.”

“The mistake made by all previous systems of ethics has been the failure to recognize that life as such is the mysterious value with which they have to deal. All spiritual life meets us within natural life. Reverence for life, therefore, is applied to natural life and spiritual life alike. In the parable of Jesus, the shepherd saves not merely the soul of the lost sheep but the whole animal. The stronger the reverence for natural life, the stronger grows also that for spiritual life.”

“Those who thank God much are the truly wealthy. So our inner happiness depends not on what we experience but on the degree of our gratitude to God, whatever the experience.”

“Never for a moment do we lay aside our mistrust of the ideals established by society, and of the convictions which are kept by it in circulation. We always know that society is full of folly and will deceive us in the matter of humanity. … humanity meaning consideration for the existence and the happiness of individual human beings.”

“We cannot abdicate our conscience to an organization, nor to a government. 'Am I my brother's keeper?' Most certainly I am! I cannot escape my responsibility by saying the State will do all that is necessary. It is a tragedy that nowadays so many think and feel otherwise.”

“The only way out of today's misery is for people to become worthy of each other's trust.”

“Faith which refuses to face indisputable facts is but little faith. Truth is always gain, however hard it is to accommodate ourselves to it. To linger in any kind of untruth proves to be a departure from the straight way of faith.”

“Indian thought has greatly attracted me since in my youth I first became acquainted with it through reading the works of Arthur Schopenhauer. From the very beginning I was convinced that all thought is really concerned with the great problem of how man can attain to spiritual union with infinite Being. My attention was drawn to Indian thought because it is busied with this problem and because by its nature it is mysticism. What I liked about it also was that Indian ethics are concerned with the behaviour of man to all living beings and not merely with his attitude to his fellow-man and to human society.”

“Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. That is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.”

“As long as I can remember, I have suffered because of the great misery I saw in the world. I never really knew the artless, youthful joy of living, and I believe that many children feel this way, even when outwardly they seem to be wholly happy and without a single care.”

“Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.”

“It is the fate of 'little faiths' of truth that they, true followers of Peter, whether they be Roman or the Protestant observance, cry out and sink in the sea of ideas, where the followers of Paul, believing in the Spirit, walk secure and undismayed.”

“Every start upon an untrodden path is a venture which only in unusual circumstances looks sensible and likely to be successful.”

“Whoever has looked into the eyes of Jesus as he appears to us in his words knows that true happiness consists of service to this great One and his Spirit — and a life offerred to his work. Those who accept this mode of life, who know how to live it, become brothers and sisters.”