Moses Mendelssohn Quotes
-
For a game it is too serious, for seriousness too much of a game.
-
The state has physical power and uses it when necessary; the power of religion is love and beneficence
-
Judaism boasts of no exclusive revelation of eternal truths that are indispensable to salvation, of no revealed religion in the sense in which that term is usually understood.
-
The principal axiom in their theory was: Everything can be proved, and everything can be disproved; and in the process, one must profit as much from the folly of others, and from his own superiority, as he can.
-
Consciousness of myself, combined with complete ignorance of everything that does not fall within my sphere of thinking, is the most telling proof of my substantiality outside God, of my original existence
-
Judaism was not a religion but a law.
-
I am, therefore there is a God.
-
I fear that, in the end, the famous debate among materialists, idealists, and dualists amounts to a merely verbal dispute that is more a matter for the linguist than for the speculative philosopher
-
The state dictates and coerces; religion teaches and persuades. The state enacts laws; religion gives commandments. The state is armed with physical force and makes use of it if need be; the force of religion is love and benevolence.
-
My religion recognizes no obligation to resolve doubt other than through rational means; and it commands no mere faith in eternal truths