Quotes from Immanuel Kant

In traditional forms of the doctrine of original sin, human beings are said to have inherited two moral liabilities from their first ancestors, Adam and Eve. One is guilt: we are said to share in the guilt of the first sin that our ancestors committed. The other is corruption, a perversion of motivation that is itself evil and makes people likelier to do wrong deeds.

The real is not given to us, but put to us by way of a riddle.

Dwell with yourself, and you will know how short your household stuff is.

Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above and the moral law within.

An action done from duty has its moral worth, not in the purpose to be attained by it, but in the maxim according with which it is decided upon; it depends therefore, not on the realization of the object of action, but solely on the principle of volition in accordance with which, irrespective of all objects of the faculty of desire, the action has been performed.

the doctrine of morals is an autonomy of practical reason, while the doctrine of virtue is at the same time an autocracy of practical reason.

Nothing happens by blind chance.

O ser humano é aquilo que a educação faz dele.

Das Lachen ist der Gesundheit zuträglich, denn es fördert die Verdauung.

I class the principle of moral feeling under that of happiness, because every empirical interest promises to contribute to our well-being by the agreeableness that a thing affords, whether profit be regarded.

There can be only one reason why we must do what duty demands, and that is that we demand it of ourselves.

Gustavo Solivellas dice: La felicidad no brota de la razón sino de la imaginación (Immanuel Kant)

Coloro che dicono che il mondo andrà sempre così come è andato finora contribuiscono a far sì che l'oggetto della loro predizione si avveri

In what way will our remote posterity be able to cope with the enormous accumulation of historical records which a few centuries will bequeath to them?

Tutto ciò che è stato scritto dagli uomini sulle donne deve essere ritenuto sospetto dal momento che essi sono ad un tempo giudici e parti in causa.

Nobody can claim himself to be practically proficient in a science and yet disdain its theory without revealing himself to be an ignoramus in his area.

B626 Sein ist offenbar kein reales Prädikat, d.i. ein Begriff von irgend etwas, was zu dem Begriffe eines Dinges, oder gewisser Bestimmungen an sich selbst... B627 Und so enthält das Wirkliche nichts mehr, als das bloss Mögliche. Hundert wirkliche Thaler enthalten nicht das mindeste mehr, als hundert mögliche... Aber in meinem Vermögenszustande ist mehr bei hundert wirklichen Thalern, als bei dem blossen Begriffe derselben, ( d.i. ihrer Moeglichkeit ).

whose true object is to shed the clearest light on every step which reason takes.

L'uomo deve mostrare bontà di cuore verso gli animali, perché chi usa essere crudele verso di essi è altrettanto insensibile verso gli uomini.

T]he sublimity and intrinsic dignity of the command in duty are so much the more evident, the less the subjective impulses favor it and the more they oppose it, without being able in the slightest degree to weaken the obligation of the law or to diminish its validity.

The character of the species, as it is indicated by the experience of all ages and all peoples, is this: that taken collectively (the human race as one whole), it is a multitude of persons, existing successively and side by side, who cannot do without associating peacefully and yet cannot avoid constantly offending one another.

Agisci in modo da considerare l'umanità come scopo, e mai come semplice mezzo.

I express the principle of one's freedom as a human being in this formula: No one can compel me (in accordance with his beliefs about the welfare of others) to be happy after his own fashion.

A learned woman might just as well have a beard, for that expresses in a more recognizable form the profundity for which she strives.