“If I am a thinking being, I must regard life other than my own with equal reverence…”


Schweitzer realizes that life other than his own longs for fullness and development just as deeply as he does; he thus feels that it is necessary to protect that life the way he would protect his own. To do so, he places importance upon annihilating pain and suffering, for there is a will-to-live in all things alive that longs for wider life and pleasure. No living thing desires to suffer; thus anything that hampers or hinders life is considered sinful.


Ethics involve the reverence of the wills-to-live of others. Absolute ethics, then, is the creating of perfection in life. Even though this cannot be achieved, the effort placed in trying is what counts.

promotion/maintanence of life = good
destruction/injury = evil

a quotation on the soul:
“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.”