Albert Schweitzer

1875–1965 · Born in Alsace · Theologian, organist, physician · Nobel Peace Prize 1952

Albert Schweitzer was a theologian, organist and musicologist who trained as a physician in middle life and founded a hospital at Lambaréné in what is now Gabon. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1952 for his philosophy of reverence for life. The passage behind this quotation comes from Aus meiner Kindheit und Jugendzeit (1924), the short memoir of his boyhood in Alsace, in which he argues that good ideas lie in people like tinder, waiting for a spark from someone else.

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“In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit”

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