Kant Quotes

Through his 3 Critiques (knowledge, ethics, aesthetic), Kant has definitely revolutionized the history of philosophy. It is undoubtly the greatest German philosopher.

Here are some notable quotes by Immanuel Kant

Kant and philosophy:

– “We learn not philosophy, we learn to philosophize”

– “The aim of philosophy is to think for oneself”

Kant and metaphysics:

– “What do I know? – What should I do? – What am I allowed to hope?”

– “We do not know a priori of things that we put ourselves”

Kant and Pure Reason:

– “The senses without reason are empty, but the reason is blind without sense”

– “We do not know a priori of things that we put”

– “The items must be paid on our knowledge”

Kant and the moral / practical reason:

– “This court feels that the man in him is consciousness”

– “Act as if the maxim of your action were to be erected by your will a universal law of nature”

– “So act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your person in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as means”

– “Two things fill the mind with admiration and awe constant: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me

– “For the night always lie to others: even if it does not interfere with another man, it hurts to humanity in general and makes it pointless source of law”

– “Pure reason is practical in itself and gives the man a universal law that we call the moral law”

– “Have the courage to use you your own understanding”

Kant, morality and happiness:

– “Morality is not, strictly speaking, the doctrine which teaches us how we should make ourselves happy, but how we make ourselves worthy of happiness”

– “Happiness is an ideal of the imagination rather than reason”

– “Man can not be sure of a concept that amount of satisfaction he calls happiness”

– “The selfish spirit is one that sees no good what is useful”

Kant on morality:

“Kant has clean hands, but he has no hands” (Péguy)

Kant and God:

– “The concept of God should fill the man of respect and therefore it should be used rarely and never lightly”

Kant and the imagination:

– “In darkness, the imagination works more actively in broad daylight”

– “Imagination is the pure representation of an absent object, but not yet incorporated”

– “Imagination is the empirical representation of an absent object that the subject has already established”

Kant and the social life (sociability):

– “I mean here by opposing the unsocial sociability of men, that is to say, their inclination to enter into society, which propensity is, however, coupled with a general repulsion to do, constantly threatening to break up this company”

– “Man wishes concord, but nature knows better than him what is good for its kind: she wants discord.”

– “Spring of Life: the unsocial sociability that drives people to compete, which prevents them from falling asleep in the calm of a limited existence”

Kant and the aesthetic:

– “Is beautiful that which pleases universally without a concept”

– “The beautiful is the symbol of moral good”

– “Taste is the faculty of judging an object or a mode of representation by the satisfaction or displeasure in a manner entirely disinterested. Is called the beautiful object of satisfaction”

Kant and women / marriage:

– “In marriage the woman becomes free, by himself, man loses his freedom”

Kant and stupidity:

– “Man obtuse lack of spirit, mind of the fool”