Reverence for Life

Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.
-Albert Schweitzer

Hiding From Ethics

Thought cannot avoid the ethical or reverence and love for all life. It will abandon the old confined systems of ethics and be forced to recognize the ethics that knows no bounds. But on the other hand, those who believe in love for all creation must realize clearly the difficulties involved in the problem of a boundless ethic and must be resolved not to veil from [humankind] the conflicts which this ethic will involve [us], but allow [us] really to experience them. To think out in every implication the ethic of love for all creation -- this is the difficult task which confronts our age.
-Albert Schweitzer

No Civilization

There is as yet no civilized society, but only a society in the process of becoming civilized. There is as yet no civilized nation, but only nations in the process of becoming civilized. From this standpoint, we can now speak of a collective task of humankind. The task of humanity is to build a genuine civilization.
-Felix Adler

No One Is Completely Irrational (Except Perhaps Jack Sparrow)

Everyone has a good reason for what they do, no matter how insane the action is. The difficulty is trying to understand the reasons for their actions.

Cultural Presuppositions

Most conflict is conflict about cultural presuppositions. If you can understand a person’s background and history, who they see themselves to be, then you can probably understand how come you can’t get along with them. It doesn’t necessarily make the conflict any easier, just more understandable.

70 x 7000000000

If we give people a second chance, they will inevitably require a third. Get used to giving a hundred chances.

Emoting Reality

Many of the things we think about certain experiences or people are colored by the emotions we have when we experience them. We don’t typically like or dislike people or experiences because of who or what they are. We like or dislike them because of the feelings we were having at the time. Try to separate out people and things from your feelings of them. You may find that they were completely different than you originally thought.