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Who really said it

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

Not Jim Valvano — a paraphrase of Albert Schweitzer Albert Schweitzer 1875–1965 · Born in Alsace · Theologian, organist, physician and 1952 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Jim Valvano quoted this line twice in public, and both times he credited Albert Schweitzer — he never claimed it. The thought is genuinely Schweitzer’s, from his 1924 memoir Aus meiner Kindheit und Jugendzeit (Memoirs of Childhood and Youth), but this exact wording matches no published translation of it. Valvano’s 1991 book prints it as “a paraphrase from a speech by Albert Schweitzer” that reached him on an anonymous note.

Last verified 27 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“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” Albert Schweitzer, Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, trans. C. T. Campion (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1924), 90. The popular wording "In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out…" is an anonymous paraphrase, not Schweitzer's text; its earliest documented appearance is Jim Valvano's 1991 memoir, where Valvano himself credits Schweitzer. Via Quotle.info.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Jim Valvano. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Albert Schweitzer — Born in Alsace · Theologian, organist, physician · Nobel Peace Prize 1952. Theme: "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". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "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". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the words actually come from

Work
Aus meiner Kindheit und Jugendzeit / Memoirs of Childhood and Youth
First published
1924
Translation
English by C. T. Campion, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1924 (chapter 5, p. 90)
Popular wording
An anonymous paraphrase; earliest instance documented by Quote Investigator is Valvano’s 1991 memoir, p. 239

As a rule there are in everyone all sorts of good ideas, ready like tinder. But much of this tinder catches fire, or catches it successfully, only when it meets some flame or spark from outside, i.e. from some other person. Often, too, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by some experience we go through with a fellow-man. Thus we have each of us cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flames within us. Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, ch. 5

This is C. T. Campion’s English translation, checked against a scan of the book. The famous three-sentence version compresses these lines and swaps in words Campion never used — “inner fire”, “encounter with another human being”, “rekindle the inner spirit”.

Scanned book — Campion translation, Macmillan first American edition, 1949
Read the passage in the Internet Archive scan
Quote Investigator’s full chronology, 1924 to 2006

How the line travelled

Two different rights questions sit on this page. Schweitzer’s memoir and Campion’s English translation were both first published in 1924, so that text — the excerpt shown above — is old enough to be public domain in the United States. The famous three-sentence wording is a different matter: nobody knows who wrote it, and its earliest documented appearance is inside an in-copyright 1991 book (Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster). Because its authorship and first publication cannot be established, we assert no status for it.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

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Fact-check

Two names on it, and neither is quite right

This line circulates under two bylines — Jim Valvano’s and Albert Schweitzer’s. The Valvano credit is simply wrong. The Schweitzer credit is right about the idea and wrong about the words.

Jim Valvano Not his line

Valvano quoted it, he did not write it. In a June 1989 Daily News column he introduced it with “(Albert) Schweitzer said…”, and in his 1991 memoir he presented it as a note from an anonymous donor that paraphrased Schweitzer. Both instances are transcribed by Quote Investigator ↗. It attaches to him because his book is where the modern wording first shows up in print.

Albert Schweitzer Paraphrase, not translation

Quote sites print these three sentences as Schweitzer’s own — Goodreads gives them with no source at all ↗. The published English by C. T. Campion reads quite differently: “Often, too, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by some experience we go through with a fellow-man.” Neither “inner fire” nor “rekindle the inner spirit” is Schweitzer’s phrasing in that translation.

“a speech by Albert Schweitzer” Wrong medium

The anonymous note Valvano reproduced called it a paraphrase from a speech. The passage it paraphrases is written, not spoken: it comes from the memoir Aus meiner Kindheit und Jugendzeit, published in 1924, which is the source Quote Investigator traces it to ↗.

Schweitzer wrote the thought in a book in 1924; the famous sentences are an anonymous rewrite that reached print through Jim Valvano in 1991 — with Valvano crediting Schweitzer, exactly as Quote Investigator documents ↗.

Context

Why the credit slides around

Schweitzer’s memoir passage is an argument, not an aphorism: good ideas sit in people like unlit tinder, and it takes another person’s spark to set them going. That is hard to put on a poster. Over the decades the paragraph was compressed — first by other translators and anthologists, then by whoever wrote the note that landed on Jim Valvano’s desk — until it became three clean sentences with a thank-you at the end.

Valvano is the reason those particular sentences travel. He used a version of them in a June 1989 Daily News column while under heavy criticism at NC State, and printed the now-famous wording in his 1991 memoir. After his ESPY speech in March 1993 and his death that April, Valvano became one of the most-quoted figures in American sport — and quotations that merely appear in his book began to be re-credited to him.

Often, too, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by some experience we go through with a fellow-man.

The wording drifted in three documented steps

1924, C. T. Campion: “Often, too, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by some experience we go through with a fellow-man. Thus we have each of us cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flames within us.”

1955, Erica Anderson: a looser rendering — “Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being” — which is where the phrase encounter with another human being enters English.

1991, the anonymous note in Valvano’s book: the modern three-sentence version, with “inner fire” and “rekindle the inner spirit” — wording that appears in none of the earlier translations.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Gratitude Kindness Hope Friendship

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: “Sometimes Our Inner Fire Goes Out”quoteinvestigator.com

The anchor investigation: the 1924 German original, Campion’s translation, and the 1989 and 1991 Valvano citations.
Memoirs of Childhood and Youth (Campion translation)archive.org

Scanned Macmillan printing of C. T. Campion’s English translation; the tinder-and-flame passage is in the text.
Albert Schweitzer — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the passage in its sourced section for Memoirs of Childhood and Youth (1924), as translated by C. T. Campion.
Albert Schweitzer — Nobel Peace Prize 1952nobelprize.org

Official record of Schweitzer’s Nobel Peace Prize, for the biographical detail on this page.
The quote on Goodreads, credited to Schweitzergoodreads.com

A typical unsourced instance: the paraphrase presented as Schweitzer’s own words with no book, page or translator.
Jim Valvanoen.wikipedia.org

Biography confirming the 1983 NC State title, his 1990 resignation, the 1991 memoir and the March 1993 ESPY speech.

The man who actually wrote it

Albert Schweitzer

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.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Albert Schweitzer, Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, trans. C. T. Campion (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1924), 90. The popular wording is an anonymous paraphrase; its earliest instance documented by Quote Investigator is Jim Valvano and Curry Kirkpatrick, Valvano: They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, and Then They Declared Me Dead (New York: Pocket Books, 1991), 239.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘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’?” Last verified 27 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/in-everyones-life-at-some-time-our-inner-fire-goes-out-it/

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