To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted...
As we acquire knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.
It is through the idealism of youth that man catches sight of truth, and in that idealism he possesses a wealth which he must never exchange for anything else.
A thinking man feels compelled to approach all life with the same reverence he has for his own.
It is only through love that we can attain to communion with God. All living knowledge of God rests upon this foundation: that we experience him in our lives as Will-to-love.
It doesn’t matter if an animal can reason. It matters only that it is capable of suffering and that is why I consider it my neighbor.
Most men are scantily nourished on a modicum of happiness and a number of empty thoughts which life lays on their plates. They are kept in the road of life through stern necessity by elemental duties which they cannot avoid.
Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.
It’s not enough merely to exist. Every man has to seek in his own way to make his own self more noble and to relize his own true worth.
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.
Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.
I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words.
The quiet conscience is an invention of the devil.
Jesus as a concrete historical personality remains a stranger to our time, but His spirit, which lies hidden in His words, is known in simplicity, and its influence is direct.
The ethic of Reverence for Life is the ethic of Love widened into universality.
Serious illness doesn’t bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.
It is not enough to merely exist. It’s not enough to say, ‘I’m earning enough to live and support my family. I do my work well. I’m a good parent.’ That’s all very well. But you must do something more.
Don’t stop to ask whether the animal or plant you meet deserves your sympathy, or how much it feels, or even whether it can feel at all: respect it and consider all life sacred.
Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal.
Because I have confidence in the power of truth, and of the spirit, I have confidence in the future of mankind.