Immanuel Kant Quotes
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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!
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Christianity possesses the great advantage over Judaism of being represented as coming from the mouth of the first Teacher not as a statutory but as a moral religion, and as thus entering into the closest relation with reason so that, through reason, it was able of itself, without historical learning, to be spread at all times and among all peoples with the greatest trustworthiness.
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Happiness, though an indefinite concept, is the goal of all rational beings.
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The infinitude of creation is great enough to make a world, or a Milky Way of worlds, look in comparison with it what a flower or an insect does in comparison with the Earth.
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Good and strong will. Mechanism must precede science (learning). Also in morals and religion? Too much discipline makes one narrow and kills proficiency. Politeness belongs, not to discipline, but to polish, and thus comes last.
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Is it reasonable to assume a purposiveness in all the parts of nature and to deny it to the whole?
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It is therefore correct to say that the senses do not err - not because they always judge rightly, but because they do not judge at all.
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It is difficult for the isolated individual to work himself out of the immaturity which has become almost natural for him.
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The public use of a man's reason must be free at all times, and this alone can bring enlightenment among men...
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Reason should investigate its own parameters before declaring its omniscience.
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Of all the arts poetry (which owes its origin almost entirely to genius and will least be guided by precept or example) maintains the first rank.
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All appearances are real and negatio; sophistical: All reality must be sensation.
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It is the Land of Truth (enchanted name!), surrounded by a wide and stormy ocean, the true home of illusion, where many a fog bank and ice, that soon melts away, tempt us to believe in new lands, while constantly deceiving the adventurous mariner with vain hopes, and involving him in adventures which he can never leave, yet never bring to an end.
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An action is essentially good if the motive of the agent be good, regardless of the consequences.
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The existence of the Bible is the greatest blessing which humanity ever experienced.
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Man relates to material things through direct insight rather than reason.
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Since the narrower or wider community of the peoples of the earth has developed so far that a violation of rights in one place is felt throughout the world, the idea of a cosmopolitan right is not fantastical, high-flown or exaggerated notion. It is a complement to the unwritten code of the civil and international law, necessary for the public rights of mankind in general and thus for the realization of perpetual peace.
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Patience is the strength of the weak, impatience is the weakness of the strong.
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There can be no doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience.
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The sceptics, a kind of nomads, despising all settled culture of the land, broke up from time to time all civil society. Fortunately their number was small, and they could not prevent the old settlers from returning to cultivate the ground afresh, though without any fixed plan or agreement.
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Reason can never prove the existence of God.
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Give me matter, and I will construct a world out of it!
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Suicide is not abominable because God prohibits it; God prohibits it because it is abominable.
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There must be a seed of every good thing in the character of men, otherwise no one can bring it out. Lacking that, analogous motives, honor, etc., are substituted. Parents are in the habit of looking out for the inclinations, for the talents and dexterity, perhaps for the disposition of their children, and not at all for their heart or character.