"QUOTES": ALBERT SCHWEITZER ON HUMANITY'S PLACE IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS

“On one of the smaller among the millions of heavenly bodies there have lived for a short space of time human beings. For how long will they continue so to live? Any lowering or raising of the temperature of the earth, any change in the inclination of the axis of their planet, a rise in the level of the ocean, or a change in the composition of the atmosphere, can put an end to their existence. …We are entirely ignorant of what significance we have for the earth. How much less then may we presume to try to attribute to the infinite universe a meaning which has us for its object, or which can be explained in terms of our existence!” Albert Schweitzer, “Philosophy of Civilization” (1923)