reverence for life
Honoring all beings
Reverence for life is the ethical principle that all living things possess inherent worth and deserve respect.
Associated with Albert Schweitzer, who developed it as a foundation for ethics, the concept holds that a truly moral person extends compassion beyond humans to all creatures: His reverence for life led him to carry insects outside rather than kill them.
The phrase implies both an attitude of awe toward existence and a practical commitment to avoiding unnecessary harm.
- sanctityQuality of being inviolable
- sacredWorthy of reverence
- aweReverent fear and wonder
- wonderAmazement or curiosity
- compassionConcern for others' distress
Albert Schweitzer · do no harm · dignity · stewardship · gentle · tenderness · protection · nurture · breath · heartbeat · living · soul · spirit · preserve · cherish · honor · humility · gratitude
- nature spiritualitynature worship, pantheism, nature deities, sacred earth, paganism
- ecoethicsbiocentrism, intrinsic value, stewardship, environmental stewardship, environmental justice
- originsbeginning, birth, creation, source, roots
- animal ethicsanimal ethics, animal welfare, animal rights, animal protection, animal liberation
- nonviolencenonviolence, pacifism, harmlessness, nonviolent, peaceful
- Buddhist ethicsright action, moral conduct, ahimsa, precepts, merit
reverence for lifenihilism
Rejection of objective meaning
bloodlust · expendability · misanthropy · speciesism · anthropocentrism
reverence for lifecallousness
Cruel emotional indifference
cold-bloodedness · cruelty · heartlessness · brutality · sadism
reverence for lifesocial Darwinism
Misapplied natural selection to society
survival of the fittest · amorality · law of the jungle · speciesism
reverence, reverent, reverential, reverentially, revere, revered, revering, irreverent, irreverence