Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Albert Schweitzer

  • Book review: Civilization and the Culture of Science

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom The word civilization has both Latin and French origins: civitas (city) and civis (citizen) in Latin, and civilise (civilized) in French. In 1923, physician, philosopher, and theologian Albert Schweitzer wrote in The Philosophy of Civilization that “Civilization was essentially the sum total of all progress made by man in every…

  • All life is a gift

    “I am tired,” said Mr. Hale. “I’m fifty-five years of age, and that little fact of itself accounts for any loss of strength.”“Nonsense! I’m upward of sixty and feel no strength, either bodily or mental. Don’t let me hear you talking so. Fifty-five! Why, you’re quite a young man.”-Elisabeth Gaskell, North and South, 1855 At…

  • Albert Schweitzer: physician philosopher

    “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” In a different world Albert Schweitzer would have been a saint, painted by Uccello or Bellini with angels in the desert, shown pulling out a thorn from a lion’s paw or…