I can only recognize myself as obliged towards others insofar as I oblige myself at the same time.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Emmanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics have made him one of the most influential figures in modern Western philosophy.
Live in conformity with nature, that is, preserve yourself in the perfection of your nature.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Make yourself more perfect than nature has made you.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Man cannot abdicate his personality as long as there are duties for him, and consequently as long as he lives.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
To annihilate in one's own person the subject of morality is to uproot from the world, as far as one can, the very existence of morality itself.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Dishonor [...] follows falsehood, and accompanies the liar like his shadow.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Lying is the debasement and, as it were, the annihilation of human dignity.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
A man who does not himself believe what he says to another [...] has even less value than a mere thing.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Considered as a person, [...] man is above all price; for [...] he cannot be regarded as a means, but as an end in himself.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Man possesses a dignity (an absolute inner worth), by which he commands respect for his person from all other rational creatures.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Be not slaves of men. Do not suffer your rights to be trampled underfoot with impunity.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
He who makes himself a worm, can he then complain of being crushed?
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Every man has a conscience and feels himself observed, threatened, and [...] held in respect by an inner judge.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Self-knowledge [...] is the beginning of all human wisdom.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
The violence and cruelty with which one treats animals are very contrary to man's duty to himself, for one thus dulls in oneself compassion.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
The things of the sensible world [...] have one meaning as things, which is little, and another as signs, which is more.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
The entire outer man corresponds [...] to the entire inner man.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
It is often easy to think prudently, but unfortunately only after one has been mistaken for a long time.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a science of the limits of human reason.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
It is more important [...] to know and secure one's possessions well than to foolishly undertake to expand them through conquests.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
We find ourselves back on the humble ground of experience and common sense. Happy are we if we regard it as our assigned place, [...] which we can never abandon with impunity.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
Among the infinite number of problems that present themselves [...], to choose those whose solution is of interest to man is the merit of wisdom.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
When science has completed its revolution, it naturally arrives at a point of modest distrust, and says [...]: How many things there are, however, that I do not know!
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
Reason, matured by experience [...], says with a serene soul [...]: How many things there are, however, that I do not need!
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
To choose reasonably, one must first know even the superfluous, even the impossible.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
One can easily account for everything when one allows oneself to imagine agents and laws of action at will.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
Can he be called honest [...] who would gladly indulge in vice if he did not fear future punishment [...]?
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
It seems [...] more in conformity with human nature to base the expectation of another life on the sentiments of a well-ordered soul, than to base one's conduct on the hope of another life.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
Human reason does not have wings powerful enough to cross the high clouds that hide the mysteries of the other world from our eyes.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
True wisdom is the companion of simplicity, and as the heart there commands the understanding, it usually renders the whole apparatus of erudition superfluous.
1766
Source: Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics
Indeed, how could we give sense and meaning to concepts if some intuition [...] were not subordinated to them?
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
To orient oneself means, in the proper sense of the word: from a given region of the world [...], to find the other three, especially the East.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
I orient myself geographically, with all the objective data of the heavens, only with the help of a subjective ground of distinction.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
[To orient oneself in thinking] will be an act of pure reason, that of directing its use when, starting from known objects [...], it wants to extend itself beyond all the bounds of experience.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
Ignorance is thus in itself the cause of the limits, but not of the errors, in our knowledge.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
Wherever there is a real need to judge, a need inherent in reason itself [...], there is necessarily a maxim according to which we must pass our judgment; for reason wants to be satisfied.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
There is [...] the right of reason's need, as a subjective ground for presupposing and assuming something that it cannot claim to know on objective grounds.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
It is not a need at all, but rather a mere curiosity that leads only to reveries, to engage in such investigations.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
All faith [...] must be rational, since the ultimate touchstone of truth is always reason.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
All faith is [...] a conviction that is subjectively sufficient, but accompanied by the consciousness of its objective insufficiency. It is thus opposed to knowing.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
To think for oneself is to seek the supreme touchstone of truth in oneself (that is, in one's own reason).
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
Would we think much, and would we think well, if we did not think in community with others to whom we communicate our thoughts, and who communicate theirs to us?
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
That external power which wrests from men the freedom to communicate their thoughts publicly, also takes from them the freedom to think.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
If reason does not want to be subject to the law it gives itself, it must bow to the yoke of laws which another gives it; for without any law, nothing can go far.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
Freedom of thought, when it goes so far as to wish to free itself from the very laws of reason, ends by destroying itself with its own hands.
1786
Source: What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?
Based on the concept of man, [...] morality needs neither the Idea of another Being superior to man for man to know his duty, nor another motive than the law itself for him to fulfill it.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
[Morality] therefore has no need [...] to rely on religion; but, by virtue of pure practical reason, it is fully sufficient unto itself.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
For morality there is no need of an end to act well, and the law alone, which contains the formal condition of the use of freedom in general, is sufficient.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
But from morality an end nevertheless follows; for it is impossible for reason to remain indifferent to the question: what will result from our good conduct?
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
It cannot [...] be a matter of indifference to morality whether or not one forms the concept of a final end of all things.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
...the moral law demands that the greatest good of which we are capable be realized.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
It is enough to do one's duty, even if everything ends with earthly life, and even if in this life happiness and merit may never meet.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
Morality thus leads necessarily to religion.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
Everything, even the most sublime, is belittled in the hands of men when they apply its idea to their own use.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
That which can only be truly honored insofar as the respect for it is free, is forced to accommodate itself to forms [...] that can only be authorized by means of coercive laws.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
A religion that recklessly declares war on reason cannot long stand against it.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
The only way to advance the sciences is to separate them well, to first take each one apart as a whole, and only then to try to consider them in their union.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
To conceal difficulties, even to treat them as impieties in order to discredit them, is a wretched expedient devoid of all value.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
It is only by listening to the philosopher that the theologian can be armed in advance against all the difficulties that the former could create for him.
1793
Source: Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason
I propose to persuade all who are concerned with metaphysics that it is necessary to suspend their work, to consider what has been done as not having happened, and to ask the question: 'if something like metaphysics is even possible.'
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
If [metaphysics] is a science, how is it that it cannot, like others, obtain universal and lasting assent? If it is not one, how is it that it always affects the appearance of one, and nourishes the mind with an incessant and never satisfied hope?
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
It is almost ridiculous, when every other science is constantly progressing, to be always turning in the same spot in metaphysics, which nevertheless wants to be wisdom itself [...] and to make not the slightest progress.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
It is never too late to be reasonable and wise; but it is always difficult to set in motion an understanding that reveals itself late.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
He who reads these prolegomena in a reflective manner [...] will doubt his past science, but will end up persuaded [...] that no metaphysics yet exists.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
[David Hume] struck a spark that could have produced light, had it fallen on flammable material, and had its action been sustained and intensified.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Reason is entirely mistaken about this concept [of cause]; it falsely takes it for its own child, [when] it is but a bastard of the imagination, which, impregnated by experience, has subjected certain representations to the law of association.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The adverse fate that always attaches itself to metaphysics willed that Hume was understood by no one.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
When insight and science are at a loss, then and not sooner, one appeals to common sense; it is one of the subtle inventions of our time, by which the most vapid babbler can take on the most solid mind.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
This appeal [to common sense] is but a recourse to the judgment of the multitude; an approval of which philosophy is ashamed, but of which the popular speaker avails himself and is proud.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Common sense and speculative understanding are both useful, but each in its own sphere: the former for judgments of immediate application in experience, the latter when one must judge in general, by mere concepts.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
I confess wholeheartedly that it is to the warning given by David Hume that I owe my emergence [...] from dogmatic slumber, and the completely new direction given to my research [...].
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Starting from a true thought, left to us by another [...] one may hope to go further by continuous reflection, on the path opened by the penetrating man to whom we owe the first spark of this light.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Pure reason is placed in such an isolated sphere [...] that one cannot touch one of its parts without touching all the others, nor do anything without having first assigned to each its place and its influence on another.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The value and use of each part depends on the relation [...] to all the rest within reason itself, and, as in an organized body, the purpose of each member can only be deduced from the perfect concept of the whole.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The object [...] always remains unknown in itself; but if the connection of representations [...] receives a universal value [...], the object is determined by this relation, and the judgment is objective.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
What experience teaches me under certain circumstances, it must teach me always and teach everyone, and its validity is not limited to the subject or their state of the moment.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
In short: the business of the senses is to perceive; that of the understanding, to think. Now, to think is to unite representations in a single consciousness.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Judgments are [...] either merely subjective, when representations are related to a single consciousness in one subject, or they are objective when they are united in a consciousness in general, that is to say [...] necessary.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The principles of a possible experience are therefore at the same time universal laws of nature, which can be known a priori.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The essential limitation of concepts is [...] that all things, as objects of experience only, are necessarily subject to [these] concepts.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Pure concepts of the understanding therefore have absolutely no meaning if they desert the objects of experience and want to be related to things in themselves (noumena).
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
All synthetic a priori principles are nothing more than principles of possible experience, and can never be related to things in themselves, but only to phenomena as objects of experience.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
[...] we can never, with all our reason, go beyond the field of experience.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
If we consider the objects of the senses [...] as mere phenomena, we thereby acknowledge that a thing in itself underlies them, although we do not know what it is [...].
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The imagination may perhaps be excused if it sometimes raves [...]. But that the understanding, whose business it is to think, should instead rave, is something that can never be forgiven.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The supreme legislation of nature must be found in ourselves, that is, in our understanding.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The understanding does not derive its laws (a priori) from nature, but prescribes them to it.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Each particular experience is only a part of the whole of its domain; but the absolute whole of all possible experience is no longer an experience.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
If necessity is referred only to phenomena, and freedom only to things in themselves, there is no contradiction [...].
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The simplicity and moderation of nature demand [...] only common notions; the artificial constraint and luxury of the social state produce elegant speakers and reasoners, but also, on occasion, fools and scoundrels.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
Everyone is much more jealous of the advantages of the mind than of the estimable qualities of the will, and [...] no one would hesitate for a moment to declare for [knavery] rather than for [foolishness].
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
The human head is properly a drum that resonates only because it is empty.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
Difficulty in expressing oneself does not prove a lack of intelligence; it only shows that the mind does not lend the necessary assistance to clothe the thought [...].
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
In the language of scoundrels, no one has intelligence who does not value others at his own worth, that is to say, who also holds them to be scoundrels.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
If by chance a passion is particularly powerful, intelligence is of little use against it; for the enchanted man [...] feels powerless to give them effective force.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
A fool can have a great deal of intelligence [...]. He can absolutely give very good advice to others, although his advice is worthless to himself.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
He who is without folly is a wise man. This wise man is perhaps on the moon; perhaps there one is without passion, and has infinitely more reason than here.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
The soul of every man, even in the healthiest state, is busy painting all sorts of images of things that do not exist [...].
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
[...] the senses are much more persuasive of real things than reasoning is.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
The hallucinating person is therefore a man who dreams while awake.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
[...] by a habitual blindness, men do not see what exists; they see what their inclination represents to them.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
[...] enthusiasm, without which nothing great has ever been accomplished in the world.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
It is in the social state that the ferments of all this corruption are properly found, which [...] serve [...] to maintain and aggravate it.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
One should say that the man became proud because he was already a little mad, rather than believe that he became mad because he was proud.
1764
Source: Essay on the maladies of the mind
All our intuitions are nothing but representations of phenomena; [...] the things we perceive are not in themselves as we perceive them.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
If we abstract from our subject [...], all the properties, all the relations of objects in space and time, space and time themselves, vanish.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
As for the nature of objects considered in themselves and independently of all [...] receptivity of our sensibility, it remains entirely unknown to us.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
We know nothing of these objects except the way in which we perceive them; and this way, which is our own, may well not be necessary for all beings [...].
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
Even if we could bring our intuition to its highest degree of clarity, we would not take a single step further towards knowing the nature of objects themselves.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
The difference between an obscure representation and a clear one is purely logical and does not concern the content.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
One cannot say that sensibility makes us obscurely know the nature of things in themselves, since it does not make us know them at all.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
As soon as we abstract from our subjective constitution, the represented object [...] is no longer to be found and can no longer be found anywhere.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
We believe we know things in themselves, although [...] we are only ever dealing with phenomena.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
Not only are these raindrops pure phenomena, but even their round shape and the very space in which they fall are nothing in themselves.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
It is therefore indubitably certain [...] that space and time [...] are only purely subjective conditions of all our intuitions.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
All that in our knowledge belongs to intuition [...] contains only simple relations.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
Simple relations do not make a thing in itself known.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
The subject [...] can only be represented by [the inner sense] as a phenomenon, and not as it would judge itself, if its intuition were [...] intellectual.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
When I say that intuition [...] represents [...] its object as it affects our senses, [...] I do not mean that these objects are a mere illusion.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
Because everything in [them] works against nature, the good for which nature has given the predisposition is far from being extracted from the human being.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
We, animal creatures, are made human only by culture.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
It is in vain that one would expect the salvation of humankind from progressive improvement. [...] [Institutions] must be entirely reconstituted if we hope to see anything good come out of them.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
It is not a slow reform, but only a swift revolution that can bring about this change.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
Delaying [a project] that is to become the first successful example [...] is the same as sowing the seed before maturity, and later harvesting weeds.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
[A project] is no longer just a beautiful idea, but shows itself with tangible proof of its feasibility.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
[It is] a phenomenon [...] much more important [...] than the brilliant nothingness on the ever-changing stage of the vast world.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
The brilliant nothingness on the ever-changing stage of the vast world, if it does not set back the good of humanity, does not advance it by a hair's breadth.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
Attacks [...] are such habitual techniques of the mania for finding fault with everything and of old traditions maintaining themselves on their dunghill.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
A peaceful indifference towards those who cast spiteful glances at everything that presents itself as good and noble should [...] arouse suspicion.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
[One must] discover an opportunity through which one could advance, with a small contribution, the greatest possible, most lasting, and general good.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
[...] the very seed of good can be cultivated and nurtured, so that in time it may be propagated and perpetuate itself.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
Those who have received an education recognize the obligation [...] to contribute to the formation of human beings.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
As governments [...] seem to have no money for the improvement of schools, it is necessary that private individuals take an interest and contribute.
1777
Source: Essays concerning the Philanthropin: second essay
Due to the systematic formation of the Universe, its various parts are connected to one another by a gradual variation of their characteristics.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
Nature, by the sole action of its forces left to themselves, knows how to bring forth marvelous developments even from chaos.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
All beings without exception depend on a single cause, which is the intelligence of God; their reciprocal actions can therefore only lead to consequences that contribute to the execution of the perfect plan [...].
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
This mathematical calculation of the unknown motion of a celestial body [...] awaits its confirmation from future observations.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
telescopes have doubtless not yet reached the degree of perfection that one is entitled to hope for, and which the zeal and skill of the artisans seem to promise us.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
If one day we were to succeed in verifying the accuracy of our conjectures by direct observation, what certainty our theory would acquire [...], and how plausible our entire system would become [...]!
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
The mechanism of motion [...] introduces a condition, thanks to which the very causes that seemed destined to bring about destruction [...] ensure its stability.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
I present this conception with real pleasure, because I have the firm hope of seeing it confirmed one day by actual observations.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
Optical instruments have opened the human mind to the knowledge of the most distant regions of the Universe. It is on their improvement above all that the progress that can be made in this path depends.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
The attention our century pays to everything that can increase the reach of man's sight allows us to hope that it will turn [...] towards the most important discoveries.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
one must not be too rigorous when it comes to satisfying our love of the marvelous.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
I find it better to sacrifice vain applause [...] for the truer satisfaction that comes from perceiving the regular chain of things, when one sees physical analogies concur [...] to bring physical truths to light.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
The pleasure of having understood and explained the conditions of existence [...] of one of the rarest phenomena of the Heavens has drawn us into somewhat lengthy developments.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
[...] the ring of Saturn could be a swarm of small satellites, which would produce for Saturn the appearance that the Milky Way has for the Earth.
1755
Source: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
Nature is the existence of things insofar as it is determined according to universal laws.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Experience teaches me what exists and how it exists, but never that it must necessarily be so and not otherwise. It can therefore never make known the nature of things in themselves.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Nature, considered materially, is therefore the sum of all objects of experience.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Empirical judgments, if they have objective validity, are judgments of experience; but those that have only subjective validity are mere judgments of perception.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
All our judgments are at first mere judgments of perception, valid only for ourselves [...] it is only afterward that we give them a new relation, a relation to an object.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Objective validity and necessary universality (for everyone) are therefore reciprocal concepts [...].
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The object in itself thus remains always unknown; but if the connection of representations [...] receives universal validity through a concept of the understanding, the object is determined by this relation, and the judgment is objective.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
In sum: the business of the senses is to perceive; that of the understanding, to think. Now, to think is to unite representations in a single consciousness.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The principles of a possible experience are therefore at the same time universal laws of nature, which can be known a priori.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Pure concepts of the understanding, therefore, have absolutely no meaning if they depart from the objects of experience and want to be related to things in themselves (noumena).
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
[...] we can never, with all our reason, go beyond the field of experience.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
[...] if we consider the objects of the senses [...] as mere phenomena, we thereby acknowledge that a thing in itself underlies them, although we do not know what it is [...].
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
The imagination is perhaps excusable if it sometimes raves [...] But that the understanding, which ought to think, should rave, on the contrary, is something that can never be forgiven.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
[...] the understanding does not derive its laws (a priori) from nature, but imposes them upon it.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
I am [...] very far from regarding [the concepts of cause and substance] as a mere product of experience [...]. I have rather proved [...] that they are [...] prior to all experience, and that they have an indisputable objective validity, but only in relation to experience.
1783
Source: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Nature has given the pig, in guise of salt, a soul, so that it does not corrupt.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
Corruption should not be [...] a consequence of death; on the contrary, death should be a consequence of corruption.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
The inclination to philosophize [...] tends to vex others with philosophical polemics, that is, to argue.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
This itch [to philosophize] must be regarded as one of nature's beneficent institutions; it uses it to preserve man [...] from falling into decay.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
Dogmatism [...] is a pillow for sleep, and the end of all animation, although animation is nevertheless the benefit of philosophy.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
Skepticism, when it is absolute, [...] has nothing with which it can exert any influence on reason [...], because it makes use of nothing.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
Critical philosophy [...] does not begin by trying to build or overturn systems [...]. It begins, on the contrary, with the examination of the human reason's faculty of knowing.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
A [philosophical] peace would hardly fail to enervate the faculties, and would deceive the intentions of nature with regard to philosophy, as a constant means of pushing humanity towards its ultimate end.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
A warlike constitution is not yet war; it can and should rather prevent it by a decisive preponderance of reasons [...].
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
Wisdom is the agreement of the will with the ultimate end (the sovereign good).
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
Wisdom for men is nothing other than the internal principle of the will to follow moral laws, whatever their object may be.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
It may happen that not everything a man regards as true is so (for he may be mistaken); but he must be truthful in everything he says (he must not deceive).
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
The lie [...] is properly the corrupted point in human nature.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
The precept: You shall not lie [...], taken internally as a principle in philosophy [...] would not only have the advantage of establishing a perpetual peace therein, but also of ensuring its future forever.
1796
Source: Announcement of the forthcoming conclusion of a treaty for perpetual peace in philosophy
If men grew accustomed to mixing [...] serious moments of reflection [...], their joys would perhaps be less noisy, and would give way to that serene calm of a soul for whom there are no more unexpected accidents.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
A gentle melancholy, that tender feeling on which noble hearts feed, [...] would bring them more true happiness than the transports of gaiety of light minds and the loud laughter of fools.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
The greatest number of men [...] run after a few water bubbles, without taking the trouble to watch out for the trapdoors that cause their companions to fall one after the other, next to them, into the abyss [...].
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
In the course of years, man adds to the art of making himself unhappy that of hiding it from himself, by casting a veil over the sad objects of life [...].
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
I am human, and nothing human is alien to me.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
Every man makes for himself the plan of his destiny [...]. Death, which ends this play of shadows, shows itself to him only in an obscure distance.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
The fate that actually befalls us rarely resembles the one we promised ourselves; at every step we take, we find our expectations disappointed.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
[...] our imagination nonetheless pursues its work, and never tires of forming new plans, until death [...] suddenly puts an end to the whole game.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
The sovereign master [...] consoles us with hope; and, by the happy ignorance in which he leaves us about the future, he makes us just as eager to meditate on designs and projects.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
The wise man [...] directs his attention above all to the great destiny that awaits him beyond the grave.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
We always find the ways of Providence wise and adorable [...]; must they not be much more so where we cannot discover them?
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
The premature death of those in whom we placed the most flattering hopes throws us into a kind of dread; but how often, perhaps, is this not the greatest favor of heaven!
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
His life is a fragment that has made us regret the rest, of which a premature death has deprived us.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
He never afflicted anyone otherwise than by his death.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
To humbly renounce our own wishes when it pleases the all-wise Providence to decide otherwise [...] these are means that can do more for the tranquility of the heart than all the reasons of an arid and powerless eloquence.
1760
Source: Consolation Addressed to a Mother on the Death of Her Son
If understanding in general is defined as the faculty of conceiving rules, judgment will be the faculty of subsuming under rules, that is, of deciding whether something falls under a given rule or not.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
While understanding can be instructed and formed by rules, judgment is a particular gift, which cannot be learned, but only exercised.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
Thus judgment is the distinctive characteristic of what is called common sense, and the lack of common sense a defect that no school can repair.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
One can certainly offer a limited understanding a supply of rules [...], but the student must already possess the faculty to use them correctly himself.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
In the absence of this gift of nature, there is no rule capable of protecting him from the misuse he may make of it.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
A doctor, a judge, or a publicist may have many fine rules in their heads [...] and yet easily fail in the application of these rules, because they lack natural judgment.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
While they may see the general in abstracto, they are incapable of deciding whether a case is contained therein in concreto.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
Thus the great, the sole utility of examples, is to exercise judgment.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
One ends up accustomed to using [examples] as formulas rather than as principles.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
Examples are therefore for the judgment what a go-cart is for a child, and one who lacks this natural gift could never do without them.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
The lack of judgment is properly what is called stupidity, and it is a flaw for which there is no remedy.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
It is not uncommon to meet very learned men who frequently reveal, in the use they make of their science, this irreparable defect [the lack of judgment].
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
In every subsumption of an object under a concept, the representation of the former must be homogeneous with the latter [...].
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
Philosophy, not as a doctrine, but as a critique, [serves to] prevent the missteps of judgment (lapsus judicii) in the use of the pure concepts that the understanding provides us.
1781
Source: Critique of Pure Reason
The moral principle that telling the truth is a duty, if taken in an absolute and isolated way, would make all society impossible.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
The idea of duty is inseparable from that of rights: a duty is what, in one being, corresponds to the rights of another. Where there are no rights, there are no duties.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
Truthfulness in statements that one cannot avoid is the formal duty of man towards everyone, whatever the serious disadvantage that may result from it [...].
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
[By lying...] I bring it about, as much as it is in my power, that statements in general find no credence, [...] which is an injustice done to humanity in general.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
It is enough to define a lie as a willfully false statement made to another man.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
He who lies, therefore, however generous his intention may be, must [...] incur the responsibility for his lie and bear the penalty for the consequences, however unforeseen they may be.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
Truthfulness is a duty which must be regarded as the basis of all duties founded on a contract, and, if one admits the slightest exception [...], one makes it unsteady and useless.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
It is therefore a sacred command of reason, an order which admits of no condition [...] that which commands us to be truthful (loyal) in all our declarations.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
Whenever a principle demonstrated to be true seems inapplicable, it is because we are ignorant of the intermediate principle which contains the means of its application.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
A principle recognized as true must therefore never be abandoned, whatever its apparent dangers may be.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
The duty of truthfulness [...] is an absolute duty which applies in all cases.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
Right must not be adjusted to politics, but politics must indeed be adjusted to right.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
He who [...] reserves for himself exceptions to a rule which by its very essence is susceptible to no exception [...] is already a liar (in potentia).
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
All legally practical principles must contain rigorous truths, and [...] they can never admit of exceptions, for these would destroy the universality to which alone they owe their name as principles.
1797
Source: On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
The use that can be made of mathematics in philosophy consists either in the imitation of its method, or in the real application of its propositions to the objects of philosophy.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
It seems more convenient to stick to obscure and difficult-to-examine abstractions than to commit to a science that has only intelligible and clear views.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
Negative quantities are not negations of quantities [...] but have in them something truly positive: only it is something opposed to the other positive quantity.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
Regarding metaphysical minds of consummate penetration, one would have to be very inexperienced to believe that one could still add anything to their knowledge, or subtract anything from their opinion.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
There is opposition between two things when, one being posited, the other is thereby suppressed. This opposition is twofold: it is either logical, through contradiction, or real, that is, without contradiction.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
The motive force of a body towards a place, and an equal effort, though in the opposite direction, do not contradict each other [...]. The consequence is rest, which is something.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
In any real opposition, both predicates must be positive, yet in such a way that in their connection the consequences mutually destroy each other in the same subject.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
Displeasure is not simply a lack of pleasure; it is a positive cause that destroys [...] the pleasure resulting from another cause, which is why I call it a negative pleasure.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
One can [...] call aversion a negative desire, hatred a negative love, ugliness a negative beauty, blame a negative praise.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
Demerit (demeritum) is not simply a negation; it is a negative virtue (meritum negativum).
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
All passing away is a negative becoming; that is, to make something positive that exists cease to be, a positive cause is just as necessary as to produce it when it does not exist.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
All abstraction is but the suppression of certain manifest ideas [...]. One can therefore call abstraction a negative attention, that is, a real action opposed to that by which the representation becomes clear.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
It is not possible for men to conclude with certainty the degree of others' virtuous intentions from their actions. He who sees into the depths of our soul has reserved this judgment for Himself alone.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
The more I reflect on God, the less I can penetrate Him. Such is not the language of the learned crowd. They know nothing, they understand nothing, yet they speak of everything, and boast of it.
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
How am I to understand that, by the fact that something exists, something else also exists?
1763
Source: Essay on the introduction into philosophy of the concept of negative magnitudes
If there is a philosophy on any object [...], there must also be for this philosophy a system of pure rational concepts, independent of any empirical condition, that is to say, a metaphysics.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
How can we conceive of the strength [...] we would need to triumph over our most vivid passions, if virtue had to draw its weapons from the arsenal of metaphysics [...]?
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
It is not [...] useless, and even less ridiculous, to seek in metaphysics the first principles of the doctrine of virtue, for every true philosopher must go back to the first principles of the concept of duty.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Without [metaphysical principles], there would generally be neither security nor purity to hope for in the doctrine of virtue.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
If feeling alone made it a duty for us [...], this duty would no longer be dictated by reason; it would be nothing more than a kind of instinct, and consequently something blind.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
There is no moral principle which is founded, as one might imagine, on feeling; the latter is in reality nothing other than a vague conception of that metaphysics which resides deep within every man's reason.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Metaphysics may well displease these so-called philosophers who pronounce on morality in the manner of oracles [...], it is a rigorous duty [...] to go back to it.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
It is truly astonishing [...] that one can still think of reducing the principle of duty to the doctrine of happiness.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
When the thinking man has succeeded in overcoming the inclinations that pushed him to vice [...], he finds himself in a state of inner peace [...] where virtue is its own reward.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
One must feel obliged to do one's duty before knowing that happiness is to be its consequence, and thus one cannot think of that first.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
The advocate of [the doctrine of happiness] cannot hope to be happy if he is not conscious of having done his duty; and he can only be moved to do his duty by the hope of happiness.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
The pleasure which necessarily precedes the observation of a law [...] is pathological [...]; but that which is necessarily preceded by the law [...] belongs to the moral order.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
If one substitutes the principle of happiness [...] for that of freedom [...], the consequence will be the insensible death (the euthanasia) of all morality.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
The practical philosopher is one who takes the final end of reason as the principle of his actions, and who moreover possesses the necessary knowledge for it.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
It is less a question of knowing what it is our duty to do [...] than of the inner principle of the will. It is necessary [...] that the consciousness of this duty be at the same time the motive of the actions.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
[Doctors of the soul] are very much like [doctors of the body] in this respect, that they describe illnesses better than they see their origin or can remedy them.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
Happy are the sick if those who treat them prescribe only diet and cold water, leaving the rest to be done by good nature.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
I believe that the generally widespread mania for reading is not simply the vehicle of this disease [superstition], but that it also produces its pestilential matter.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
One is content to skim, so to speak, the cream of the sciences [...] while wanting to make imperceptible the inequality between a wordy ignorance and a fundamental science.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
This happens especially when unintelligible things [...] are presented as facts, and the philosophical naturalist is then asked to explain how he understands the fulfillment of this or that dream.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
One seeks [...] to eliminate the inequality in an easier way, by placing things on a path where, on both sides, one equally knows and sees nothing.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
I see no other remedy for this evil than to bring teaching [...] back to the fundamental teaching of a smaller number of things.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
[It is necessary] that the well-educated reader takes pleasure only in that which provides positive and clear knowledge, and is averse to all the rest.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
The common talent of giving one's ignorance a scientific appearance consists in the superstitious person saying: Do you understand the true cause of magnetic force...?
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
[The superstitious person] believes [...] he can speak as pertinently about a thing that, in his view, the greatest naturalist knows no better than he does.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
The naturalist deals only with effects that he can always demonstrate through experimentation [...], whereas the superstitious person collects effects that may have no other origin than the imagination.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
A long refutation in such matters is repugnant to the dignity of reason and leads to nothing.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
A disdainful silence is what this kind of delusion most deserves.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
Such moral phenomena are short-lived and soon give way to other follies.
1790
Source: On Superstition and its Remedies
Man is the only creature that is susceptible to education.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Discipline makes us pass from the animal state to the human state. [...] Man needs his own reason.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
The human species is obliged to draw out from itself, little by little, through its own efforts, all the natural qualities that belong to humanity.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Wildness is independence from all laws. Discipline submits man to the laws of humanity [...].
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
Man can only become man through education. He is only what it makes of him.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
The lack of discipline is a worse evil than the lack of culture, for the latter can still be repaired later, whereas one can no longer drive out wildness [...].
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
It is in the problem of education that lies the great secret of the perfection of human nature.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
One must not regard an idea as chimerical and dismiss it as a beautiful dream, just because obstacles prevent its realization.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
An ideal is nothing other than the conception of a perfection that has not yet been met with in experience.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
It is not individuals, but the species alone that can reach this goal.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
To make oneself better, to cultivate oneself, and, if one is bad, to develop morality within oneself, this is the duty of man.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
One must not raise children according to the present state of the human species, but according to a better state in the future, that is, according to the idea of humanity [...].
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
The only cause of evil is that nature is not brought under rules. In man, there are only seeds for the good.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
It is not enough for man to be fit for all sorts of ends; he must also make it his maxim to choose only good ones.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
One of the greatest problems of education is to reconcile, under a legitimate constraint, submission with the ability to use one's freedom.
1797-1798
Source: Doctrine of Virtue
The sum of the laws which require to be universally promulgated in order to produce a juridical state is public right.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
Before the establishment of a legal and public state, individuals, peoples, and States can have no guarantee against violence from one another [...].
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
One must leave the state of nature, in which each follows his own judgment, and unite with all others [...] in a common submission to an external, legal, and public constraint.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
A State (civitas) is the union of a number of men under juridical laws.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
The legislative power can belong only to the collective will of the people.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
Any injustice is impossible in what one decides for oneself (for to one who consents, no injury is done).
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
Man in the State [...] has entirely renounced his wild, lawless freedom in order to find his freedom in general, intact, in a lawful dependency, that is, in a juridical state.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
A government that would at the same time be legislative would rightly be called despotic [...].
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
It is in the union [of the three powers] that the salvation of the State resides (salus reipublicæ suprema lex est).
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
The duty of the people to bear the abuse of the supreme power [...] is founded on this, that their resistance to the sovereign legislation must never be considered otherwise than as illegal.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
Juridical punishment [...] can never be decreed simply as a means to achieve some good [...]; it must always be applied to him only because he has committed a crime.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
A human being must never be treated as a mere means to the purposes of another, nor be mixed up with the objects of real right; his innate personality protects him from this.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
If the criminal has committed murder, he must die. There is no substitute for punishment here that can satisfy justice.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
Perpetual peace (the ultimate goal of the whole law of nations) is therefore undoubtedly an impracticable idea. But the political principles which aim at it [...] are not.
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
Every true republic is and can be nothing else than a representative system of the people, established to protect their rights in their name [...].
1797
Source: Metaphysics of Morals (Barni trans.)/Doctrine of Right
A great man, even on an unpopular path, must always be the object of a liberal curiosity.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
To suppose that a reader is perfectly indifferent to Kant is to suppose that they are perfectly unintellectual.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
There is no philosophical writer, with the exception of Aristotle, Descartes, and Locke, who can claim to approach Kant in the extent and height of influence he has exerted on the minds of men.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
Kant did not tolerate lulls: it was the name he gave to momentary pauses in conversation when its liveliness languished. He always found some way to rekindle the interest.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
As for any story that lacked a time or place of origin, however plausible it might seem, Kant was always inexorably skeptical and considered it unworthy of being told.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
[He] considered life [...] as a state of perpetual oscillation and change [...], whereas death, a permanent state admitting neither more nor less, [...] did not seem to him suited to any other state of mind than a disposition of the same durable and immutable nature.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
He would remain in quiet meditation on what he had just read [...]. The tower rested on his eye, like distant music on the ear, obscurely, half-consciously.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
It happened that some poplars in a neighboring garden grew tall enough to hide the view of this tower. At which, Kant became very troubled, [...] and finally found himself positively unable to continue his evening meditations.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
Is it possible to conceive of a human being who enjoys more perfect health than I!
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
The past stood out with the sharpness and vividness of an immediate existence, while the present vanished into the darkness of an infinite distance.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
Gentlemen, I am not afraid of death: I solemnly swear to you [...] that if this very night I were to suddenly receive my death warrant, I would hear it calmly; I would raise my hands to heaven, and I would say: Blessed be God!
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
If someone told him: 'Dear Professor, the coffee will be brought right away,' — 'It will be!' he would say; 'but that's the point, it will be: one never has happiness, one is always about to have it.'
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
Other people note what they wish to remember. Here, Kant had noted what he must forget: 'Mem. — February 1802 — the name Lampe is no longer to be remembered.'
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
God forbid that I should have fallen so low as to forget the duties of humanity.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant
His faculties were turning to ashes, but from time to time some tongue of flame or great emanation of light would shoot up to show us that the old fire was dormant underneath.
1827
Source: Early Writings (Marcel Schwob)/Translations/The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant