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
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of helping others selflessly and recognizing our interconnectedness.
In this quote, Albert Schweitzer highlights the idea that we all live in a shared world where our actions can impact the lives of others. He encourages us to seek out opportunities to help those in need, even in small ways, and to find fulfillment in altruism rather than material gain. This perspective invites reflection on our responsibilities toward one another and the joy that comes from contributing positively to the well-being of others.
In practice
In a speech about community service, you might quote this to inspire volunteers.
I do not want to frighten you by telling you about the temptations life will bring. Anyone who is healthy in spirit will overcome them. But there is something I want you to realize. It does not matter so much what you do. What matters is whether your soul is harmed by what you do. If your soul is harmed, something irreparable happens, the extent of which you won't realize until it will be too late.
Within every patient there resides a doctor, and we as physicians are at our best when we we put our patients in touch with the doctor inside themselves.
By ethical conduct toward all creatures, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the universe.
No one can give a definition of the soul. But we know what it feels like. The soul is the sense of something higher than ourselves, something that stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspirations which go out to the world of goodness, truth and beauty. The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it--to remain children of light.
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.
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
The little man is still a man.
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
But you see," said Roark quietly, "I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.
Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.
The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
I can't think of a more wonderful thanksgiving for the life I've had than that everyone should be jolly at my funeral.
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