The last fact which knowledge can discover is that the world is a manifestation, and in every way a puzzling manifestation, of the universal will to live.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The ultimate discovery of knowledge is that the world expresses a universal will to live, though it remains puzzling.
- In plain terms
- Knowledge shows the world is driven by a will to live.
- What can you take from it?
- Existence is rooted in a universal drive to live.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What drives the world around you?
- Is life inherently purposeful?
Another view
The concept of a universal will is unprovable.
More from Albert Schweitzer
Awakening of Western thought will not be complete until that thought steps outside itself and comes to an understanding with the search for a world-view as thi…
Permalink to quote #10 Resignation as to knowledge of the world is for me not an irretrievable plunge into a scepticism which leaves us to drift about in life like a derelict vessel.…
Permalink to quote #12 The ethical ideas on which civilization rests have been wandering about the world, poverty-stricken and homeless. No theory of the universe has been advanced w…
Permalink to quote #9
Related quotes
If we knew the meaning to everything that is happening to us, then there would be no meaning.
Idi AminIdi Amin quote #10 Existence: 'The mysteries we ostensibly perceive, though seemingly ubiquitous, are but mere stitches that hold the inconceivably vast fabric of the unknown tig…
Bryant McGillBryant McGill quote #20 What transforms this world is - knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming t…
Yukio MishimaYukio Mishima quote #1