"I too am subject to division of my will-to-life against itself. In a thousand ways my existence stands in conflict with that of others. The necessity to destroy and to injure life IS imposed upon me. If I walk along an unfrequented path, my foot brings destruction and pain upon the tiny creatures which populate it. In order to preserve my own existence, I must defend myself against the existence which injures it. I become a persecutor of the little mouse which inhabits my house, a murderer of the insect which want to have its nest there, a mass-murderer of the bacteria which may endanger my life. I get my food by destroying plants and animals. My happiness is built upon injury done to my fellow-men."
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Albert Schweitzer, The Philosophy of Civilisation: Civilisation and Ethics (1947) p. 250
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Insect_suffering
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Albert Schweitzer
1875 – 1965
elsässischer Arzt, Theologe und Philosoph
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