Quotes by Immanuel Kant

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Behave in such a way that any of your actions become a universal rule of conduct.

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The beautiful is the symbol of the moral Good, and ... in this aspect alone ... it gives pleasure, demanding the assent of all the other elements. By this the spirit becomes aware of a certain ennobling rise above mere sensitivity to the pleasures received through the senses.

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The beauty of a gesture is appreciated when it is done easily and effortlessly.

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He who got rid of excesses also got rid of misery.

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People would run from each other if they saw each other in the light of utmost sincerity.

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It's my duty - that's the only moral motivation.

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Being responsible for yourself means respecting your own dignity.

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Repudiating one's beliefs is an ongoing act.

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It is not good to always give children rewards. Thus they can become selfish and develop the belief that anything can be sold or bought.

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Work is the best way to enjoy life.

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People whose life has a price fear death the least.

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Suffering is an impulse to action.

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Ethics is the philosophy of conviction.

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All the culture and art that beautifies mankind is the result of unsociability.

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Everything we say must be truthful, but that does not mean that every truth must be spoken in public.

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To appeal to courage is to half-inspire it.

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The greatest sensual pleasure, which contains no trace of disgust, is healthy rest after work.

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In marriage, a couple must form a kind of unique moral personality.

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Genius is the talent to discover what cannot be taught or studied.

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Stupidity is a handicap without a cure.

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Virtue means the presence of courage and bravery, which implies the existence of an enemy.

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When we lie, we blush. But we don't blush every time we lie. We often blush when we are ashamed of the shamelessness of our accusers.

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When justice perishes, there is nothing left that can value human life.

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The court that man feels in himself is conscience. Conscience is the adaptation of our actions to the requirements of this tribunal.

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People's lives, spent only in amusements, without reason and morality, have no value.

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Duty! A remarkable word which in itself contains nothing flattering to men.

"It must be *possible* for the *I think* to accompany all my representations: for otherwise something would be represented within me that could not be thought at all, in other words, the representation would either be impossible, or at least would be nothing to me. That representation which can be given prior to all thought is called *intuition*, and all the manifold of intuition has, therefore, a necessary relation to the *I think* in the same subject in which this manifold of intuition is found. This representation (the *I think*), however, is an act of *spontaneity*, that is, it cannot be considered as belonging to sensibility. I call it *pure apperception*, in order to distinguish it from empirical apperception, as also from original apperception, because it is that self-consciousness which, by producing the representations, *I think* (which must be capable of accompanying all other representations, and which is one and the same in all consciousness), cannot itself be accompanied by any further representations. I also call the unity of apperception the *transcendental* unity of self-consciousness, in order to indicate that *a priori* knowledge can be obtained from it. For the manifold representations given in an intuition would not one and all be *my* representations, if they did not all belong to one self-consciousness. What I mean is that, as my representations (even though I am not conscious of them as that), they must conform to the condition under which alone they *can* stand together in one universal self-consciousness, because otherwise they would not one and all belong to me. From this original combination much can be inferred. The thoroughgoing identity of the apperception of a manifold that is given in intuition contains a synthesis of representations, and is possible only through the consciousness of this synthesis. For the empirical consciousness which accompanies different representations is itself dispersed and without reference to the identity of the subject. Such a reference comes about, not simply through my accompanying every representation with consciousness, but through my *adding* one representation to another and being conscious of the synthesis of them. Only because I am able to combine a manifold of given representations *in one consciousness* is it possible for me to represent to myself the *identity of the consciousness in these representations*, that is, only under the presupposition of some *synthetic* unity of apperception is the *analytic* unity of apperception possible. The thought that the representations given in intuition belong one and all *to me*, is therefore the same as the thought that I unite them in one self-consciousness, or can at least do so; and although that thought itself is not yet the consciousness of the synthesis of representations, it nevertheless presupposes the possibility of this synthesis. In other words, it is only because I am able to comprehend the manifold of representations in one consciousness that I call them one and all *my* representations. For otherwise I should have as many-coloured and varied a self as I have representations of which I am conscious. Synthetic unity of the manifold of intuitions, as given *a priori*, is thus the ground of the identity of apperception itself, which precedes *a priori* all *my* determinate thought. Combination, however, does not lie in the objects, and cannot be borrowed from them by perception and thus first be taken into the understanding. It is, rather, solely an act of the understanding, which itself is nothing but the faculty of combining *a priori* and of bringing the manifold of given representations under the unity of apperception; and the principle of this unity is, in fact, the supreme principle of all human knowledge."

"Metaphysics, a completely isolated and speculative branch of rational knowledge which is raised above all teachings of experience and rests on concepts only (not, like mathematics, on their application to intuition), in which reason therefore is meant to be its own pupil, has hitherto not had the good fortune to enter upon the secure path of a science, although it is older than all other sciences, and would survive even if all the rest were swallowed up in the abyss of an all-destroying barbarism. Reason in metaphysics, even if it tries, as it professes, only to gain *a priori* insight into those laws which are confirmed by our most common experience, is constantly being brought to a standstill, and we are obliged again and again to retrace our steps, as they do not lead us where we want to go. As to unanimity among its participants, there is so little of it in metaphysics that it has rather become an arena that would seem especially suited for those who wish to exercise themselves in mock fights, where no combatant has as yet succeeded in gaining even an inch of ground that he could call his permanent possession. There cannot be any doubt, therefore, that the method of metaphysics has hitherto consisted in a mere random groping, and, what is worst of all, in groping among mere concepts. What, then, is the reason that this secure scientific course has not yet been found? Is this, perhaps, impossible? Why, in that case, should nature have afflicted our reason with the restless aspiration to look for it, and have made it one of its most important concerns? What is more, how little should we be justified in trusting our reason, with regard to one of the most important objects of which we desire knowledge, it not only abandons us, but lures us on by delusions, and in the end betrays us! Or, if hitherto we have only failed to meet with the right path, what indications are there to make us hope that, should we renew our search, we shall be more successful than others before us?"

"A similar experiment may be tried in metaphysics as regards the *intuition* of objects. If the intuition had to conform to the constitution of objects, I would not understand how we could know anything of them *a priori*; but if the object (as object of the senses) conformed to the constitution of our faculty of intuition, I could very well conceive such a possibility. As, however, I cannot rest in these intuitions if they are to become knowledge, but have to refer them as representations, to something as their object, and must determine this object through them, I can assume either that the *concepts* through which I arrive at this determination also conform to the object, and I would again be as perplexed about how I can know anything about it *a priori*; or else that the objects, or what is the same thing, the *experience* in which alone they are known (as objects that are given to us), conform to those concepts. In the latter case, I recognize an easier solution because experience itself is a kind of knowledge that requires understanding; and this understanding has its rules which I must presuppose as existing within me even before objects are given to me, and hence *a priori*. These rules are expressed in *a priori* concepts to which all objects of experience must necessarily conform, and with which they must agree. With regard to objects, insofar as they are thought merely through reason and thought indeed as necessary, and which can never, at least not in the way in which reason thinks them, be given in experience, the attempts at thinking them (for they must admit of being thought) will subsequently furnish an excellent touchstone of what we are adopting as our new method of thought, namely, that we know of things *a priori* only that which we ourselves put into them."

"Conscience is an instinct to pass judgment upon ourselves in accordance with moral laws."

"It is true, no doubt, that this principle of the necessary unity of apperception is itself an identical and therefore an analytic proposition; but it shows, nevertheless, the necessity of a synthesis of the manifold given in an intuition, a synthesis without which it would be impossible to think the thoroughgoing identity of self-consciousness. For through the *I*, as a simple representation, nothing manifold is given; only in intuition, which is distinct from this representation, can a manifold be given, and then, through *combination*, be thought in one consciousness. An understanding in which through self-consciousness all the manifold would be given at the same time would be one that *intuits*; our understanding can do nothing but *think*, and must seek intuition in the senses. I am conscious, therefore, of the identical self with respect to the manifold of the representations that are given to me in an intuition, because I call them one and all *my* representations, as constituting *one* intuition. This means that I am conscious *a priori* of a necessary synthesis of them, which is called the original synthetic unity of apperception, and under which all representations given to me must stand, but under which they must also be brought by means of a synthesis."

"This experiment succeeds as hoped and promises to metaphysics, in its first part, which deals with those *a priori* concepts to which the corresponding objects may be given in experience, the secure course of a science. For by thus changing our point of view, the possibility of *a priori* knowledge can well be explained, and, what is still more, the laws which *a priori* lie at the foundation of nature, as the sum total of the objects of experience, may be supplied with satisfactory proofs, neither of which was possible within the procedure hitherto adopted. But there arises from this deduction of our faculty of knowing *a priori*, as given in the first part of metaphysics, a somewhat startling result, apparently most detrimental to that purpose of metaphysics which has to be treated in its second part, namely the impossibly of using this faculty to transcend the limits of possible experience, which is precisely the most essential concern of the science of metaphysics. But here we have exactly the experiment which, by disproving the opposite, establishes the truth of the first estimate of our *a priori* rational knowledge, namely, that it is directed only at appearances and must leave the thing in itself as real for itself but unknown to us. For that which necessarily impels us to to go beyond the limits of experience and of all appearances is the *unconditioned*, which reason rightfully and necessarily demands, aside from everything conditioned, in all things in themselves, so that the series of conditions be completed. If, then, we find that, under the supposition that our empirical knowledge conforms to objects as things in themselves, the unconditioned *cannot be thought without contradiction*, while under the supposition that our representation of things as they are given to us does not conform to them as things in themselves, but, on the contrary, that these objects as appearance conform to our mode of representation, then *the contradiction vanishes*; and if we find, therefore, that the unconditioned cannot be encountered in things insofar as we are acquainted with them (insofar as they are given to us), but only in things insofar as we are not acquainted with them, that is, insofar as they are things in themselves; then it becomes apparent that what we at first assumed only for the sake of experiment is well founded. However, with speculative reason unable to make progress in the field of the supersensible, it is still open to us to investigate whether in reason's practical knowledge data may not be found which would enable us to determine that transcendent rational concept of the unconditioned, so as to allow us, in accordance with the wish of metaphysics, to get beyond the limits of all possible experience with our *a priori* knowledge, which is possible in practical matters only. Within such a procedure, speculative reason has always at least created a space for such an expansion, even if it has to leave it empty; none the less we are at liberty, indeed we are summoned, to fill it, if we are able to do so, with practical *data* of reason."

"The purpose of this critique of pure speculative reason consists in the attempt to change the old procedure of metaphysics, and to bring about a complete revolution after the example set by geometers and investigators of nature. This critique is a treatise on the method, not a system of the science itself; but nevertheless it marks out the whole plan of this science, both with regard to its limits and with regard to its inner organization. For it is peculiar to pure speculative reason that it is able, indeed bound, to measure its own powers according to the different ways in which it chooses its objects for thought, and to enumerate exhaustively the different ways of choosing its problems, thus tracing a complete outline of a system of metaphysics. This is due to the fact that, with regard to the first point, nothing can be attributed to objects in *a priori* knowledge, except what the thinking subject takes from within itself; while, with regard to the second point, pure reason, as far as its principles of knowledge are concerned, forms a separate and independent unity, in which, as in an organized body, every member exists for the sake of all the others, and all the others exist for the sake of the one, so that no principle can be safely applied in *one* relation unless it has been carefully examined in *all* its relations to the whole use of pure reason. Hence, too, metaphysics has this singular advantage, an advantage which cannot be shared by any other rational science which has to deal with objects (for *logic* deals only with the form of thought in general), that if by means of this critique it has been set upon the secure course of a science, it can exhaustively grasp the entire field of knowledge pertaining to it, and can thus finish its work and leave it to posterity as a capital that can never be added to, because it has to deal only with principles and with the limitations of their use, as determined by these principles themselves. And this completeness becomes indeed an obligation if metaphysics is to be a fundamental science, of which we must be able to say, *nil actum reputants, si quid superesset agendum* [to think that nothing was done for as long as something remained to be done]."

"Our critique is not opposed to the *dogmatic procedure* of reason in its pure knowledge as science (for science must always be dogmatic, that is, derive its proof from secure *a priori* principles), but only to *dogmatism*, that is, to the presumption that it is possible to make any progress with pure (philosophical) knowledge from concepts according to principles, such as reason has long been in the habit of using, without first inquiring in what way, and by what right, it has come to posses them. Dogmatism is therefore the dogmatic procedure of pure reason, *without a preceding critique of its own powers*; and our opposition to this is not intended to defend that loquacious shallowness which arrogates to itself the name of popularity, much less that skepticism which makes short work of the whole of metaphysics. On the contrary, our critique is meant to form a necessary preparation in support of metaphysics as a thorough science, which must necessarily be carried out dogmatically and strictly systematically, so as to satisfy all the demands, no so much of the public at large, as of the Schools. This is an indispensable demand for it has undertaken to carry out its work entirely *a priori*, and thus to carry it out to the complete satisfaction of speculative reason. In the execution of this plan, as traced out by the critique, that is, in a future system of metaphysics, we shall have to follow the strict method of the celebrated Wolff, the greatest of all dogmatic philosophers. He was the first to give an example (and by his example initiated, in Germany, that spirit of thoroughness which is not yet extinct) of how the secure course of a science could be attained only through the lawful establishment of principles, the clear determination of concepts, the attempt at strictness of proof and avoidance of taking bold leaps in our inferences. He was therefore most eminently qualified to give metaphysics the dignity of a science, if it had only occurred to him to prepare his field in advance by criticism of the organ, that is, of pure reason itself―an omission due not so much to himself as to the dogmatic mentality of his age, about which the philosophers of his own, as well as of all previous times, have no right to reproach one another. Those who reject both the method of Wolff and the procedure of the critique of pure reason can have no other aim but to shake off the fetters of *science* altogether, and thus to change work into play, certainty into opinion and philosophy into philodoxy."

"By this freedom the will of a rational being, as belonging to the sensuous world, recognizes itself to be, like all other efficient causes, necessarily subject to the laws of causality, while in practical matters, in its other aspect as a being in itself, it is conscious of its existence as determinable in an intelligible order of things. It is conscious of this not by virtue of a particular intuition of itself but because of certain dynamic laws which determine its causality in the world of sense, for it has been sufficiently proved in another place that if freedom is attributed to us, it transfers us into an intelligible order of things."

"On the other hand, the moral law, although it gives no such prospect, does provide a fact absolutely inexplicable from any data of the world of sense or from the whole compass of the theoretical use of reason, and this fact points to a pure intelligible world―indeed, it defines it positively and enable us to know something of it, namely a law. This law gives to the sensible world, as sensuous nature (as this concerns rational beings), the form of an intelligible world, i.e., the form of supersensuous nature, without interfering with the mechanism of the former. Nature, in the widest sense of the word, is the existence of things under laws. The sensuous nature of rational beings in general is their existence under empirically conditioned laws, and therefore it is, from the point of view of reason, heteronomy. The supersensuous nature of the same beings, on the other hand, is their existence according to laws which are independent of all empirical conditions and which therefore belong to the autonomy of pure reason. And since the laws, according to which the existence of things depends on cognition, are practical, supersensuous nature, so far as we can form a concept of it, is nothing else than nature under the autonomy of the pure practical reason. The law of this autonomy is the moral law, and it, therefore, is the fundamental law of supersensuous nature and of a pure world of the understanding, whose counterpart must exist in the world of sense without interfering with the laws of the latter. The former could be called the archetypal world (*natura archetypa*) which we know only by reason; the latter, on the other hand, could be called the ectypal world (*natura ectypa*), because it contains the possible effect of the idea of the former as the determining ground of the will."

"Falsehood, ingratitude, injustice, the puerility of the ends which we ourselves look upon as great and momentous… these all so contradict the idea of what men might be if they only would, and are so at variance with our active wish to see them better, that, to avoid hating where one cannot love, it seems but a slight sacrifice to forego all the joys of fellowship with our kind."

"Any change makes me apprehensive, even if it offers the greatest promise of improving my condition, and I am persuaded by this natural instinct of mine that I must take heed if I wish that the threads which the Fates spin so thin and weak in my case to be spun to any length. My great thanks, to my well-wishers and friends, who think so kindly of me as to undertake my welfare, but at the same time a most humble request to protect me in my current condition from any disturbance."

"Philosophy cannot be taught; only philosophizing can be learned."

"The real is not given to us, but put to us by way of a riddle."

"Science can be divided into an infinite number of disciplines, and the amount of knowledge that can be pursued in each discipline is limitless. The most critical piece of knowledge, then, is the knowledge of what is essential to learn and what isn’t. A huge amount of knowledge is accumulated at present. Soon our abilities will be too weak, and our lives too short, to study this knowledge. We have vast treasures of knowledge at our disposal but after we study them, we often do not use them at all. It would be better not to have this burden, this unnecessary knowledge, which we do not really need."

"A man shouldn’t claim to know even himself as he really is by knowing himself through inner sensation—i.e. by introspection. For since he doesn’t produce himself (so to speak) or get his concept of himself a priori but only empirically, it is natural that he gets his knowledge of himself through inner sense and consequently only through how his nature appears and how his consciousness is affected. But beyond the character of his own subject, which is made up out of these mere appearances, he necessarily assumes something else underlying it, namely his I as it is in itself. Thus in respect to mere perception and receptivity to sensations he must count himself as belonging to the sensible world; but in respect to whatever pure activity there may be in himself (which reaches his consciousness directly and not by affecting the inner or outer senses) he must count himself as belonging to the intellectual world—though he doesn’t know anything more about it."

"Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved ."

"Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: 'War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills."

"The state of peace among men living side by side is not the natural state; the natural state is one of war. This does not always mean open hostilities, but at least an unceasing threat of war. A state of peace, therefore, must be established, for in order to be secured against hostility it is not sufficient that hostilities simply not be committed; and, until security is pledged to each by his neighbour (a thing that can only occur in a civil state) , each may treat his neighbour, from who he demands this security, as an enemy."

"Religion is too important a matter to its devotees to be a subject of ridicule. If they indulge in absurdities, they are to be pitied rather than ridiculed."

"We believe, or assume to believe, that we satisfy [our] duty to humanity if we first provide fully for our own material wants and then pay our tribute to the universal provider by giving a little to the poor. But if we were scrupulously just there would be no poor to whom we could give alms and think that we had realized the merit of benevolence. Better than charity, better than giving of our surplus is conscientious and scrupulously fair conduct and a helping hand in need."

"Nothing happens by blind chance."

"Chisels and hammers may suffice to work a piece of wood, but for etching we require an etcher's needle. Thus common sense and speculative understanding are both useful, but each in its own way: the former in judgments which apply immediately to experience; the latter when we judge universally from mere concepts, as in metaphysics, where sound common sense, so called in spite of the inappropriateness of the word, has no right to judge at all."

"A person born blind cannot frame the smallest conception of darkness, because he has none of light. The savage knows nothing of poverty, because he does not know wealth and the ignorant has no conception of his ignorance, because he has none of knowledge."

"Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or a lighthouse."

"Man's greatest concern is to know how he shall properly fill his place in the universe and correctly understand what he must be in order to be a man."

"We are enriched by not what we posses, but by what we can do without."

"From such crooked timber as humankind is made of nothing entirely straight can be made."

"Freedom is alone the unoriginated birthright of man, and belongs to him by force of his humanity; and is independent of the will and co-action of every other…"

"If there is any science man really needs it is the one I teach, of how to occupy properly that place in creation that is assigned to man, and how to learn from it what one must be in order to be a man."

"Things which we see are not by themselves what we see."

"A learned woman might just as well have a beard, for that expresses in a more recognizable form the profundity for which she strives."

"The character of the species, as it is indicated by the experience of all ages and all peoples, is this: that taken collectively (the human race as one whole), it is a multitude of persons, existing successively and side by side, who cannot do without associating peacefully and yet cannot avoid constantly offending one another."

"From this it follows incontestably, that pure concepts of the understanding never admit of a transcendental, but only of an empirical use, and that the principles of the pure understanding can only be referred, as general conditions of a possible experience, to objects of the senses, never to things in themselves…"

"The possession of power inevitably spoils the free use of reason."

"From such crooked timber as humanity is made of, no straight thing was ever constructed."

"The enjoyment of power inevitably corrupts the judgement of reason, and perverts its liberty."

"You must, therefore you can. A free will and a will subject to moral laws are one and the same thing."

"However, one can also cognize the existence of the thing prior to the perception of it, and therefore cognize it comparatively a priori, if only it is connected with some perceptions in accordance with the principles of their empirical connection (the analogies). For in that case the existence of the thing is still connected with our perceptions in a possible experience, and with the guidance of the analogies we can get from our actual perceptions to the thing in the series of possible perceptions. Thus we cognize the existence of a magnetic matter penetrating all bodies from the perception of attracted iron filings, although an immediate perception of this matter is impossible for us given the construction of our organs. For in accordance with the laws of sensibility and the context of our perceptions we could also happen upon the immediate empirical intuition of it in an experience of if our senses, the crudeness of which does not affect the form of possible experience in general, were finer. Thus wherever perception and whatever is appended to it in accordance with empirical laws reaches, there too reaches our cognition of the existence of things. If we do not being with experience, or proceed in accordance with laws of the empirical connection of appearances, then we are only making a vain display of wanting to discover or research the existence of any thing."

"It is beyond doubt that all knowledge begins with experience."

"Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness."

"The point is not always to speculate, but also ultimately to think about applying our knowledge. Today, however, he who lives in conformity with what he teaches is taken for a dreamer."

"Dare to know!"

"What would proceed from a continual promotion of living force, which does not let itself climb above a certain grade, other than a rapid death from delight?"

"Prudence reproaches; conscience accuses."

"Heaven has given human beings three things to balance the odds of life: hope, sleep, and laughter."

"Despite the great wealth of words which European languages possess, the thinker finds himself often at a loss for an expression exactly suited to his conception, for want of which he is unable to make himself intelligible either to others or to himself. To coin new words is a pretension to legislation in language which is seldom successful; and, before recourse is taken to so desperate an expedient, it is advisable to examine the dead and learned languages, with the hope and the probability that we may there meet with some adequate expression of the notion we have in our minds. In this case, even if the original meaning of the word has become somewhat uncertain, from carelessness or want of caution on the part of the authors of it, it is always better to adhere to and confirm its proper meaning– even although it may be doubtful whether it was formerly used in exactly this sense– than to make our labour vain by want of sufficient care to render ourselves intelligible."

"”Have the courage to use your own understanding!" - that is the motto of enlightenment."

"The true religion is to be posited not in the knowledge or confession of what God allegedly does or has done for our salvation, but in what we must do to become worthy of this."

"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."

"From the crooked timber of humanity, never was a straight thing made."

"Give me matter, and I will construct a world out of it!"

"All rational knowledge is either material, and concerns some objects, or formal, and is occupied only with the form of understanding and reason itself and with the universal rules of thinking, without regard to distinctions among objects. formal philosophy is called logic. Material philosophy, however, which has to do with definite object objects and the laws to which they are subject, is divided into two parts. This is because these laws are either laws of nature or laws of freedom. The science of the former is called physics, and that of the latter ethics. The former is also called theory of nature and the latter theory of morals."

"If man is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practice kindness towards animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."

"Act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a general law of nature."

"The hand is the visible part of the brain."

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more seriously reflection concentrates upon them: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me."

"Enlightenment is man's exodus from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is the inability to use one's understanding without the guidance of another person..'Dare to Know'(sapere aude) Have the courage to use your own understanding;this is the motto of the Enlightenment."

"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was even made."

"Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind. The understanding can intuit nothing, the senses can think nothing. Only through their unison can knowledge arise."

"If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself."

"Woman wants control, man self-control."

"We can never, even by the strictest examination, get completely behind the secret springs of action."

"The greatest human quest is to know what one must do in order to become a human being."

"What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?"

"By a lie a man throws away, and as it were, annihilates his dignity as a man."

"No one may force anyone to be happy according to his manner of imagining the well-being of other men; instead, everyone may seek his happiness in the way that seems good to him as long as he does not infringe on the freedom of others to pursue a similar purpose, when such freedom may coexist with the freedom of every other man according to a possible and general law."

"Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a proportion of men, long after nature has released them from alien guidance, nonetheless gladly remain in lifelong immaturity, and why it is so easy for others to establish themselves as their guardians..."

"Job says what he thinks and feels, and how every person would likely feel in his position. His friends, on the other hand, talk as if they were secretly being watched by the powerful Ruler whose case is open to their verdict, and as if, in making their verdict, they cared more about winning His favor than about the truth. This trickery of maintaining something just to keep up appearances, contrary to their true beliefs, feigning a conviction they did not have, stands in stark contrast to Job’s candor, which is so far removed from flattery that it borders on audacity, but nevertheless casts him in a very favorable light."

"Human reason goes forth inexorably to such questions as cannot be answered by any experiential use of reason or principles based on it."

"The touchstone of everything that can be concluded as a law for a people lies in the question whether the people could have imposed such a law on itself."

"But, though all our knowledge begins with experience, it by no means follows that all arises out of experience."

"Man desires concord; but nature know better what is good for his species; she desires discord."

"Art is purposiveness without purpose."

"It is difficult for the isolated individual to work himself out of the immaturity which has become almost natural for him. He has even become fond of it and for the time being is incapable of employing his own intelligence, because he has never been allowed to make the attempt. Statutes and formulas, these mechanical tools of a serviceable use, or rather misuse, of his natural faculties, are the ankle-chains of a continuous immaturity. Whoever threw it off would make an uncertain jump over the smallest trench because he is not accustomed to such free movement. Therefore there are only a few who have pursued a firm path and have succeeded in escaping from immaturity by their own cultivation of the mind."

"Even if, by some especially unfortunate fate or by the niggardly provision of stepmotherly nature, [the good will] should be wholly lacking in the power to accomplish its purpose; if with the greatest effort it should yet achieve nothing, and only the good will should remain (not, to be sure, as a mere wish but as the summoning of all the means in our power), yet would it, like a jewel, still shine by its own light as something which has its full value in itself."

"If justice perishes, then it is no longer worthwhile for men to live upon the earth."

"Freedom is the opposite of necessity."

"The main point of enlightenment is man's release from his self-caused immaturity, primarily in matters of religion."

"Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law"

"The death of dogma is the birth of morality."

"Marriage...is the union of two people of different sexes with a view to the mutual possession of each other's sexual attributes for the duration of their lives."

"Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason."

"Two things fill my mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the reflection dwells on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me."

"The people naturally adhere most to doctrines which demand the least self-exertion and the least use of their own reason, and which can best accommodate their duties to their inclinations."

"An action, to have moral worth, must be done from duty."

"But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience."

"Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play."

"Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness."

"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity."

"Law And Freedom without Violence (Anarchy) Law And Violence without Freedom (Despotism) Violence without Freedom And Law (Barbarism) Violence with Freedom And Law (Republic)."

"There is something splendid about innocence; but what is bad about it, in turn, is that it cannot protect itself very well and is easily seduced."

"Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality."

"Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee."

"Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own intelligence!"

"We are enriched not by what we possess, but by what we can do without."

"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries."

"Treat people as an end, and never as a means to an end."

"If the truth shall kill them, let them die."

"How then is perfection to be sought? Wherein lies our hope? In education, and in nothing else."

"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."

"To be is to do."

"Give me matter and i will build a world out of it."

"Man, and in general every rational being, exists as an end in himself, not merely as a means for arbitrary use by this or that will: he must in all his actions, whether they are directed to himself or to other rational beings, always be viewed at the same time as an end."

"Better the whole people perish than that injustice be done."

"As a matter of fact, no other language in the world has received such praise as the Lithuanian language. The garlands of high honour have been taken to Lithuanian people for inventing, elaborating, and introducing the most highly developed human speech with its beautiful and clear phonology. Moreover, according to comparative philology, the Lithuanian language is best qualified to represent the primitive Aryan civilization and culture."

"Settle, for sure and universally, what conduct will promote the happiness of a rational being."

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and reverence the more often and more steadily one reflects on them, the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me."

"... Lithuanian nation must be saved, as it is the key to all the riddles - not only philology, but also in history - to solve the puzzle."

"When the tremulous radiance of a summer night fills with twinkling stars and the moon itself is full, I am slowly drawn into a state of enhanced sensitivity made of friendship and disdain for the world and eternity."

"From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned."

"Enlightenment is the emancipation of man from a state of self-imposed tutelage... of incapacity to use his own intelligence without external guidance. Such a state of tutelage I call 'self-imposed' if it is due, not to lack of intelligence, but to lack of courage or determination to use one's own intelligence without the help of a leader. Sapere aude! Dare to use your own intelligence! This is the battle-cry of the Enlightenment."

"A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself, without reference to any other purpose."

"What might be said of things in themselves, separated from all relationship to our senses, remains for us absolutely unknown."

"From the crooked timber of humanity, a straight board cannot be hewn."

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above and the moral law within."

"In the kingdom of ends everything has either a price or a dignity. What has a price can be replaced by something else as its equivalent; what on the other hand is raised above all price and therefore admits of no equivalent has a dignity."

"Simply to acquiesce in skepticism can never suffice to overcome the restlessness of reason."

"Beauty presents an indeterminate concept of Understanding, the sublime an indeterminate concept of Reason."

"Dignity is a value that creates irreplaceability."

"It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience."

"Human beings are never to be treated as a means but always as ends."

"By a lie a man throws away and as it were annihilates his dignity as a man"

"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment."

"In every department of physical science there is only so much science, properly so-called, as there is mathematics."

"We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without."

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."

"Look closely. The beautiful may be small."

"One who makes himself a worm cannot complain afterwards if people step on him."

"For peace to reign on Earth, humans must evolve into new beings who have learned to see the whole first."

"Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for."

"Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them."

"The busier we are, the more acutely we feel that we live, the more conscious we are of life."

"Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person."

"The strong desire for a pleasant and ideal life is a child’s worst misfortune. It is crucial that children should know how to work from an early age."

"Ours is the age of criticism. Religion and law try to escape from criticism, religion by saying that it is divine and law by showing that it is powerful. But some suspicions arise from this escape, because we can respect only those things which stand up in free and public trial."

"All people, from the first, and without any judicial act, should possess the earth. They should be able to live where nature and chance have brought them."

"A person should always develop his ability to do goodness. Make yourself better; this should be every person’s goal."

"Faith answers those questions to which the intellect cannot find answers, but which must be asked. There is only one true religion, though there are many different faiths."

"You should be brave enough to use your own intellect, in life and in your education."

"The more I dedicate my time to two things, the more they fill my life with ever-increasing pleasure. The first is the sky above me, and the second is the moral law within me."

"We cannot imagine the scope of our ignorance, just as a blind man cannot imagine darkness until he can see."

"Prayer is understood as an inner formal religious service, a service to ask and achieve some compassion for yourself from the higher force; this is a misconception. On the other hand, the desire of our heart to please God with all our actions - this is the spirit of real prayer which should always exist in us."

"I cannot cause any improvement in anyone except with the help of the goodness and kindness which already is inherent in this person."

"We live in an epoch of discipline, culture, and civilization, but not in an epoch of morality. In the present state, we can say that the happiness of the people grows, and yet the unhappiness of the people increases as well. How can we make people happy when they are not educated to have high morals? They do not become wise."

"There is in our soul something that, if we see it as it is and give it the proper attention, will always give us great pleasure; this something is the moral disposition or quality which was given to us at our creation."

"The difference between religions—what a strange expression. Certainly there can be different faiths, and beliefs in historical events which are passed from one generation to another to strengthen religion; in the same way there can be different religious books—the Sutras, Vedas, Koran, etc. But there can be only one religion, and it is real for all times."

"The kingdom of God on earth is the final purpose and desire of humankind."

"Virtue always lasts longer than other qualities, and it always starts from the beginning."

"Love of goodness and faith in immortality are inseparable. Nobody can say that he knows what the afterlife will be. Our beliefs are based not on logical proofs but on moral ones and therefore I cannot say that God exists and I am immortal, but I can say that God exists and that my “self” is immortal. This means that my faith in God is so closely connected with my nature that this faith cannot be separated from me."

"A habit is never good, even a habit of doing good deeds. Good deeds, after they become habits, are no longer acts of virtue. Real good is achieved only with effort."

"A huge amount of knowledge is accumulated at present. Soon our abilities will be too weak, and our lives too short, to study this knowledge. We have vast treasures of knowledge at our disposal but after we study them, we often do not use them at all. It would be better not to have this burden, this unnecessary knowledge, which we do not really need."

"One of the best and purest joys is having a rest after labor."

"If beautiful art does not express moral ideas, ideas which unite people, then it is not art, but only entertainment. People need to be entertained in order to distance themselves from disappointment in their lives."

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The student should learn to think, not thoughts.

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It is certain that those who have once tasted criticism will forever be disgusted by all the dogmatic chatter that they had to put up with before, because their mind needed something and could not find anything better to occupy them.

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The character is a rock on which run aground ships dock and besiegers run aground.

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If the fine arts are not closely or distantly related to moral ideals - which is generally liked - then they can only be used for the purpose of entertainment, for which a person becomes the more thirsty, the more often he uses it in order to drive away his soul's disobedience to itself; but man thus becomes even more useless and even more dissatisfied.

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Habit can never be condoned, not even in the field of good deeds. Good, if it is a habit, is no longer a virtue.

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If we do not realize that in the argument we are not facing our partner's mind, but his will, then we have no chance of winning. Because it is useless to argue from the side of reason where we are dealing with wills and dispositions.

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If I want to do good to my heart, if I really want to refresh and strengthen it, then I do not turn to the confusing questions of philosophy, but take a small book in my hand - the New Testament, in which I find infinitely more light and deeper truth than in all the writings of the philosophers combined .

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Enlightenment is man's recovery from his self-inflicted infancy.

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Morality is born with the death of dogma.

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You cannot prove the existence of God by thinking.

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The Bible is the book whose very content testifies to its divine origin. The Bible is my noblest treasure, without it I would be miserable.

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If both things had been made a condition for the establishment of a state, the need to have a head of state and the possibility of a rebellion, then the establishment of a state would not have been possible at all. And yet this would be the intention of the people. (...) The illegitimacy of the rebellion is therefore evident from the fact that (...) it would make its own goal impossible.

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The one who uses and consumes people as objects to be handled at will: he turns them into mere machines, into living machines, like animals, who only lack consciousness, so that they are the most miserable creatures in the world.

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It is not possible to carve a completely straight one from such crooked wood as the one from which man is made.

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Trees, if they are standing and growing in the open air, will develop better and bear more magnificent fruit than if they were raised by artifice, greenhouses and forced forms.

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Knowing things only through pure reason or pure reason is nothing more than mere appearance, and there is truth only in experience.

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One of the principles of the art of education, which should be kept in mind by all those who have plans to raise children, is the following: children should not be raised according to the current state of the human race, but according to its possible better state in the future, that is, according to the ideal and the whole purpose of humanity. This principle is extremely important. Parents normally raise their children in such a way that they can fit into today's, no matter how degraded, age. But they should be educated in the right way so that better conditions can arise in the future.

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The moral law shines above us like the starry firmament.

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Two things fill my soul with new and growing respect and admiration, the more often and permanently my thinking deals with it: the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.

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What you like without interest is beautiful.

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Everyone gets only as much happiness as they deserve.

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Man can never think of his own will as anything other than free.

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We are only able to enjoy the good with a joyful heart.

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Act in such a way that the maxim of your will can always prevail as a principle of general law-making.

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The fact that all people have died so far does not mean that all people will die in the future.

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Only a man in love is jealous, but women are jealous even without love.

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According to the law, someone is guilty of violating the rights of others. According to ethics, if you are considering doing this.

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In this way, the moral law, through the concept of the supreme good, the object and end goal of pure practical reason, leads to religion, that is, to the recognition of all duties as divine commands, not as sanctions, i.e. the arbitrary and random dispositions of a foreign will taken within ourselves, but as each individual free will made its essential laws independently, which, however, must be regarded as the commands of the supreme being, because we can only hope for the highest good from a morally perfect (holy and good) and at the same time omnipotent will, which according to the moral law we are obliged to make the object of our efforts, i.e. to achieve we can hope if we are in harmony with this will.

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The essence of art: expediency without purpose.

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Morality does not teach us how to be happy, but how to be worthy of happiness.

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The existence of the Bible is the greatest blessing to the human race. Any attempt to downplay this is an assassination against humanity.