Ever since the world’s far-off lands were discovered, what has been the conduct of the white peoples to the coloured ones? […] Who can describe the injustice and the cruelties that in the course of centuries they have suffered at the hands of Europeans? […] If a record could be compiled of all that has happened between the white and the coloured races, it would make a book containing numbers of pages which the reader would have to turn over unread because their contents would be too horrible. We and our civilization are burdened, really, with a great debt. We are not free to confer benefits on these men, or not, as we please; it is our duty. Anything we give them is not benevolence but atonement.

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Alsatian philosopher, physician, philanthropist, polymath
On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, ch. 11 (1922) [tr. Campion (1928)]

 
Added on 10-Jan-13 | Last updated 10-Jan-13
Link to this post | No comments
More quotes by Schweitzer, Albert

Thoughts? Comments? Corrections? Feedback?