Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

The line urges a deliberate moral exercise: to remember the pain and deprivation that remain invisible because comfort, distance, or privilege allows us not to witness them. It challenges the tendency to avert one’s eyes from suffering—whether social, economic, or physical—and implies that ethical seriousness begins with attention. In Schweitzer’s spirit of “reverence for life,” the thought functions as a corrective to complacency: by periodically imagining what we do not see, we cultivate compassion, humility, and a sense of responsibility toward others. The quote also suggests that ignorance can be chosen, and that choosing awareness is a first step toward solidarity and action.