Meu tempo ocioso no aguardo do embarque pra Chimoio trouxe toda a riqueza da obra de Schweitzer de volta às mãos. Um dos homens que mais me influencia. Vai algumas preciosidades, trecho da obra que estou relendo hoje:
"The disastrous feature of our civilization is that it is far more developed materially than spiritually. . . . [A] civilization which develops only on its material side, and not in corresponding measure in the sphere of the spirit, is like a ship with defective steering gear which gets out of control at a constantly accelerating pace, and thereby heads for catastrophe".
"I have given up the ambition to become a great scholar, I want to be more — simply a human."
"Philosophy without religious concerns is empty, and religion without philosophical thought is blind."
"Science and knowledge cannot discover anything in reality that would demonstrate that the world is essentially good or that life has a predetermined meaning. Life is a riddle that reason can never fully penetrate: “But what life is, no science can tell us.”
"Relativism is dangerous not only because it lowers our standards but also because it often leads to indifference and apathy, to a complete decline of a civilization’s ethical and spiritual aspects."
What worry me is the insufficient presence of the ethical and spiritual ideals that would guide the development of science and technology toward serving the highest interest of humanity. In the absence of such ideals, science and technology may end up poisoning the environment and developing powerful weapons that can destroy all life on this planet.
The last fact which knowledge can discover is that the world is a manifestation, and in every way a puzzling manifestation, of the universal will to live.
Ethics consists in the affi rmation of all life and the devotion to it, independent of our knowledge of the world.
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