“Modern Christianity must always reckon with the possibility of having to abandon the historical figure of Jesus.”

— Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, 2nd edition, 1913

About Albert Schweitzer

1875 – 1965

Alsatian theologian, physician and missionary, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1952).

“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.”

“The historical Jesus will be to our time a stranger and an enigma.”

“Truth has no special time of its own.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”