Quotes About Ethics

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Agisci in modo da considerare l'umanità, sia nella tua persona, sia nella persona di ogni altro, sempre anche come scopo, e mai come semplice mezzo.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made

Man's greatest concern is to know how he shall properly fill his place in the universe and correctly understand what he must be in order to be a man.

Footnote: The real morality of actions—their merit or demerit, and even that of our own conduct, is completely unknown to us. Our estimates can relate only to their empirical character. How much is the result of the action of free will, how much is to be ascribed to nature and to blameless error, or to a happy constitution of temperament (merito fortunae), no one can discover, nor, for this reason, determine with perfect justice.]

The sight of a being who is not adorned with a single feature of a pure and good will, enjoying unbroken prosperity, can never give pleasure to an impartial rational spectator. Thus a good will appears to constitute the indispensable condition even of being worthy of happiness.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no truly straight thing was ever made.

A good will is good not because of what it performs or effects, not by its aptness for the attainment of some proposed end, but simply by virtue of the volition - that is, it is good in itself, and considered by itself is to be esteemed much higher than all that can be brought about by it in favor of any inclination, nay, even of the sum-total of all inclinations... like a jewel, it would still shine by its own light, as a thing which has its whole value in itself.

The rights of men must be held sacred, however great the cost of sacrifice may be to those in power. Here one cannot go halfway, cooking up hybrid, pragmatically-conditioned rights (which are somewhere between the right and the expedient); instead, all politics must bend its knee before morality...

Gustavo Solivellas dice: La felicidad no es un ideal de la razón, sino de la imaginación (Immanuel Kant)

purposes are imposed on nature violently and dictatorially, instead of being sought by means of physical investigation.

Conscience is an instinct to pass judgment upon ourselves in accordance with moral laws.

Would it not therefore be wiser in moral concerns to acquiesce in the judgement of common reason, or at most only to call in philosophy for the purpose of rendering the system of morals more complete and intelligible, and its rules more convenient for use (especially for disputation), but not so as to draw off the common understanding from its happy simplicity, or to bring it by means of philosophy into a new path of inquiry and instruction?

Um fremden Wert willig und frei anzuerkennen, muß man eigenen haben.

Jeg skal alltid handle slik at den regelen jeg handler etter kunne gjelde som allmenn lov.