The Schweitzer Album: A Portrait in Words and Pictures. Erica Anderson.

The Schweitzer Album: A Portrait in Words and Pictures
Erica Anderson
New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1965.

Why read it? A remarkable person. The essence of Dr. Schweitzer’s life and thought is respect and reverence for all life. He believed that the idea of reverence for life is spread from person to person, not through the mass media. All life is one. The good preserves and supports life; evil destroys or injures life. Everything that lives is related to us. The fly knows anxiety, hope and fear of not existing any more. Has any man been able to create a fly? Schweitzer earned degrees in philosophy, theology and medicine. Dedicated the first 30 years of his life to scholarship and music; the rest of his life would be dedicated to the service of men. [Assume he modeled his life on the life of Jesus.]

Some sample ideas from the book: Why destroy animals to demonstrate to students things already known? Man owes a debt to beast for all its suffering in the service to mankind. Beast and man are joined together by pain.

Read the New Testament to learn the spirit of Jesus.

Revolution means something new is begun with destruction. Evolution, on the other hand, means creation.

Reality never submits to theory.

Truths from emotion are moral—compassion, kindness, forgiveness, love; reason’s truths come from reflection.

One should develop the sense of the mystery of existence and of life.

Maturity is the moment we see what is around us, comprehend it and accept our place in it.

The more we know, the deeper the mystery of life.

Thought must affect something, that is it needs to be applied.

All humans are full of contradictions.

Truth cannot damage religious faith.

Quote: “…because of the ideas conceived and circulated generation after generation, civilization endures, progresses and deepens.”