Members, remember to participate in our free book programs by Saturday!

Who said: "At times, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by a spark from another person."

BookBrowse's Favorite Quotes

"At times, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by a spark from another person." – Albert Schweitzer

Albert-SchweitzerTheologian, musician, philosopher, physician and Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer was born in Kaisersberg, Alsace-Lorraine in 1875 (at that time part of the German Empire). His father and maternal grandfather were ministers and both of his grandfathers were talented organists. He obtained a doctorate in philosophy in 1899 from the University of Strasbourg with a dissertation on the religious philosophy of Kant. He received his theology license in 1900 and served in various high ranking administrative posts in the Theological College of St Thomas at the University of Strasbourg from 1901 to 1912. In 1906 he published The Quest of the Historical Jesus, a book on which much of his fame as a theological scholar rests.

Meanwhile, he pursued a distinguished musical career. His earnings from his professional engagements as an organist (which continued up until his mid-eighties) paid for his education, his medical schooling and for his African hospital.

Having decided to go to Africa as a medical missionary rather than as a pastor, Schweitzer began studying medicine in 1905. In 1913, having obtained his M.D. degree from the University of Strasbourg, he founded his hospital at Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa (now the Gabon). In 1917, he and his wife were sent to a French internment camp as prisoners of war. Released at the end of the war, Schweitzer asked for, and was awarded, French nationality according to his Alsacian ancestries. He spent the next six years in Europe, preaching, giving lectures and concerts, taking medical courses and writing On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, The Decay and Restoration of Civilization, Civilization and Ethics, and Christianity and the Religions of the World.

He returned to Lambaréné in 1924 and, except for relatively short periods of time, spent the remainder of his life there. With the funds earned from his own royalties and personal appearance fees and with those donated from all parts of the world, he expanded the hospital to seventy buildings which by the early 1960s could take care of over 500 patients in residence at any one time.

He received numerous honors, including the prestigious Germany literary prize, the Goethe Prize of Frankfurt; the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize; and honorary doctorates from many universities for one or another of his achievements.

He died in September 1965 and was buried at Lambaréné.

More Quotes

This quote & biography originally ran in an issue of BookBrowse's membership magazine. Full Membership Features & Benefits.

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The Frozen River
    by Ariel Lawhon
    "I cannot say why it is so important that I make this daily record. Perhaps because I have been ...
  • Book Jacket: Everything We Never Had
    Everything We Never Had
    by Randy Ribay
    Francisco Maghabol has recently arrived in California from the Philippines, eager to earn money to ...
  • Book Jacket: The Demon of Unrest
    The Demon of Unrest
    by Erik Larson
    In the aftermath of the 1860 presidential election, the divided United States began to collapse as ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.
Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking something up and finding something else ...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.