Immanuel Kant

But, above all, it will confer an inestimable benefit on morality and religion, by showing that all the objections urged against them may be silenced for ever by the Socratic method, that is to say, by proving the ignorance of the objector.

—Immanuel Kant

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.

—Immanuel Kant

The schematicism by which our understanding deals with the phenomenal world … is a skill so deeply hidden in the human soul that we shall hardly guess the secret trick that Nature here employs.

—Immanuel Kant

If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet, and so on… then I have no need to exert myself. I have no need to think, if only I can pay; others will take care of that disagreeable business for me.

—Immanuel Kant

Human reason, in one sphere of its cognition, is called upon to consider questions, which it cannot decline, as they are presented by its own nature, but which it cannot answer, as they transcend every faculty of the mind.

—Immanuel Kant

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.

—Immanuel Kant

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

—Immanuel Kant

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

—Immanuel Kant

Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another.

—Immanuel Kant

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.

—Immanuel Kant

But, above all, it will confer an inestimable benefit on morality and religion, by showing that all the objections urged against them may be silenced for ever by the Socratic method, that is to say, by proving the ignorance of the objector.

—Immanuel Kant

Better the whole people perish than that injustice be done

—Immanuel Kant

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.

—Immanuel Kant

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

—Immanuel Kant

New prejudices will serve as well as old ones to harness the great unthinking masses.

—Immanuel Kant

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

—Immanuel Kant

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

—Immanuel Kant

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

—Immanuel Kant

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

—Immanuel Kant

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

—Immanuel Kant

Philosophical knowledge is knowledge which reason gains from concepts; mathematical knowledge is knowledge which reason gains from the construction of concepts.

—Immanuel Kant

Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means.

—Immanuel Kant

The great mass of people are worthy of our respect.

—Immanuel Kant

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.

—Immanuel Kant

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

—Immanuel Kant

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.

—Immanuel Kant

Experience may teach us what is, but never that it cannot be otherwise.

—Immanuel Kant

Innocence is indeed a glorious thing, only, on the other hand, it is very sad that it cannot well maintain itself, and is easily seduced.

—Immanuel Kant

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.

—Immanuel Kant

He who would know the world must first manufacture it.

—Immanuel Kant