Quotes from Immanuel Kant

Things which we see are not by themselves what we see.

Con las piedras que con duro intento los críticos te lanzan, bien puedes erigirte un monumento.

The possession of power inevitably spoils the free use of reason.

Pensamentos sem conteúdos são vazios, intuições sem conceitos são cegas.

The only quality necessary for being a citizen (i.e., a co-legislator), other than the natural one (that he is neither a child nor a woman), is that he be his own master, consequently that he have some property to support himself.

R]eason of itself, independent on all experience, ordains what ought to take place, that accordingly actions of which perhaps the world has hitherto never given an example, the feasibility even if which might be very much doubted by one who founds everything on experience, are nevertheless inflexibly commanded by reason; that, for example, even though there might never yet have been a sincere friend, yet not a whit the less is pure sincerity in friendship required of every man...

If there is any science man really needs it is the one I teach, of how to occupy properly that place in creation that is assigned to man, and how to learn from it what one must be in order to be a man.

El mundo de ningún modo se hundirá porque haya menos hombres malos.

Imitation finds no place at all in morality, and examples serve only for encouragement, that is, they put beyond doubt the feasibility of what the law commands, they make visible that which the practical rule expresses more generally, but they can never authorize us to set aside the true original which lies in reason, and to guide ourselves by examples.

The crux of his new philosophy is this: What assurance do we have that our a priori (rational) thoughts have in reality a relation to objects that exist apart from us?

Act upon a maxim which, at the same time, involves its own universal validity for every rational being.

Puoi conoscere il cuore di un uomo già dal modo in cui egli tratta le bestie.

Freedom is alone the unoriginated birthright of man, and belongs to him by force of his humanity; and is independent of the will and co-action of every other…

It must be freely admitted that there is a sort of circle here from which it seems impossible to escape. In the order of efficient causes we assume ourselves free, in order that in the order of ends we may conceive ourselves as subject to these laws because we have attributed to ourselves freedom of will; for freedom and self-legislation of will are both autonomy...

The world will by no means perish by a diminution in the number of evil men.

Space is an ineluctable modality of our perception (IMMANUEL KANT) …. Or perhaps is it, more essentially and explicitly than ever, ever-providing modalities? (Irene Doura-Kavadia)

all duties depend as regards the kind of obligation (not the object of their action) upon the one principle.

It is, therefore, a question which requires close investigation, and not to be answered at first sight, whether there exists a knowledge altogether independent of experience, and even of all sensuous impressions? Knowledge of this kind is called a priori, in contradistinction to empirical knowledge, which has its sources a posteriori, that is, in experience.

Es gibt nichts Praktischeres als eine gute Theorie.

My object is to persuade all those who think metaphysics worth studying that it is absolutely necessary to pause a moment and, disregarding all that has been done, to propose first the preliminary question, "Whether such a thing as metaphysics be at all possible?

From such crooked timber as humankind is made of nothing entirely straight can be made.

T]o be unfaithful to my maxim of prudence may often be very advantageous to me, although to abide by it is certainly safer.

For morality, with regard to its principles of public right (hence in relation to a political code which can be known a priori), has the peculiar feature that the less it makes its conduct depend upon the end it envisages (whether this be a physical or moral advantage), the more it will in general harmonise with this end.

People who read mainly the Grounding and the Critique often criticize Kant for having his head in the clouds and for not being convincingly capable of dealing with concrete cases. A reading of the Metaphysics of Morals will show anyone how unfounded such criticisms are.