Immanuel Kant Quotes
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Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
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Heaven has given human beings three things to balance the odds of life: hope, sleep, and laughter.
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cruelty to animals is contrary to man's duty to himself, because it deadens in him the feeling of sympathy for their sufferings, and thus a natural tendency that is very useful to morality in relation to other human beings is weakened.
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We ourselves introduce that order and regularity in the appearance which we entitle "nature". We could never find them in appearances had we not ourselves, by the nature of our own mind, originally set them there.
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A single line in the Bible has consoled me more than all the books I ever read besides.
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The light dove, cleaving the air in her free flight, and feeling its resistance, might imagine that its flight would be still easier in empty space.
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You only know me as you see me, not as I actually am
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Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty.
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Manners or etiquette ('accessibility, affability, politeness, refinement, propriety, courtesy, and ingratiating and captivating behavior') call for no large measure of moral determination and cannot, therefore, be reckoned as virtues. Even though manners are no virtues, they are a means of developing virtue.... The more we refine the crude elements in our nature, the more we improve our humanity and the more capable it grows of feeling the driving force of virtuous principles.
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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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He who has made great moral progress ceases to pray
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Duty is the necessity to act out of reverence for the law.
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But a lie is a lie, and in itself intrinsically evil, whether it be told with good or bad intents.
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If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.
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The two great dividers are religion and LANGUAGE
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Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own intelligence!
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If, like Hume, I had all manner of adornment in my power, I would still have reservations about using them. It is true that some readers will be scared off by dryness. But isn't it necessary to scare off some if in their case the matter would end up in bad hands?
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The hand is the visible part of the brain.
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The busier we are, the more acutely we feel that we live, the more conscious we are of life.
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The universal and lasting establishment of peace constitutes not merely a part, but the whole final purpose and end of the science of right as viewed within the limits of reason.
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The means employed by Nature to bring about the development of all the capacities of men is their antagonism in society, so far as this is, in the end, the cause of a lawful order among men.
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Art does not want the representation of a beautiful thing, but the representation of something beautiful.
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Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person.
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If we knew that god exists, such knowledge would make morality impossible. For, if we acted morally from fear or fright, or confident of a reward, then this would not be moral. It would be enlightened selfishness.
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Only the descent into the hell of self-knowledge can pave the way to godliness.
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Enlightenment is man's leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.
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Patience is the strength of the weak, impatience is the weakness of the strong.
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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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Riches ennoble a man's circumstances, but not himself.
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Nature, when left to universal laws, tends to produce regularity out of chaos.
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