The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship

EXAMPLE

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. Hope is renewed each time that you see a person you know, who is deeply involved in the struggle of life, helping another person…Those not tied down by suffering are called to help those who are chained by suffering. But they should not think, “Behold, I am giving an example” – that spoils it. Anyone who thinks of the example he will give to others is occupied with things he ought not be doing. He has lost his simplicity. Only as a man has simplicity can his example influence others. (Thoughts for Our Times, p. 51)

I decided that I would make my life my argument. I would advocate the things I believed in, in terms of the life I live and what I did. (Letter to Norman Cousins, 1958)

Much that has become our own in gentleness, modesty, kindness, willingness to forgive, veracity, loyalty, resignation under suffering, we owe to people in whom we have seen or experienced such virtues at work, sometimes in a great matter, sometimes in a small. A thought which had become act sprang into us like a spark, and lighted a new flame within us. (Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, p. 90.)

I do not believe that we can put into anyone ideas which are not in him already. 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. (Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, p. 91)