Until now the public image of Albert Schweitzer as an ethical thinker has been that of a single-track mind absorbed by the one idea that came to him in a flash on the Ogowe River in Lambarene during the First World War: reverence for life. True, Schweitzer himself promoted this image, last and most impressively in his spoken message of 1964, which began with the sentence "I summon mankind to the ethics of reverence for life".¹⁶⁴ Urgent though this final appeal remains, I shall not discuss its adequacy and its shortcomings. But it would be unfortunate if this emphasis were to divert us from another part of Schweitzer's message, which not only was more basic in his life but may have even greater significance for social ethics. I shall call it "Good fortune obligates".