Immanuel Kant

(22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) German philosopher (a native of the Kingdom of Prussia) and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers.

English154 Magyar31 Română26
We are enriched not by what we possess, but by what we can do without.
Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own intelligence!
Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.
Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality.
The death of dogma is the birth of morality.
Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person.
The busier we are, the more acutely we feel that we live, the more conscious we are of life.
Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.
Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.
For peace to reign on Earth, humans must evolve into new beings who have learned to see the whole first.
One who makes himself a worm cannot complain afterwards if people step on him.
Look closely. The beautiful may be small.
He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.
We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without.
The strong desire for a pleasant and ideal life is a child’s worst misfortune. It is crucial that children should know how to work from an early age.
Ours is the age of criticism. Religion and law try to escape from criticism, religion by saying that it is divine and law by showing that it is powerful. But some suspicions arise from this escape, because we can respect only those things which stand up in free and public trial.
Faith answers those questions to which the intellect cannot find answers, but which must be asked. There is only one true religion, though there are many different faiths.
A person should always develop his ability to do goodness. Make yourself better; this should be every person’s goal.
All people, from the first, and without any judicial act, should possess the earth. They should be able to live where nature and chance have brought them.
You should be brave enough to use your own intellect, in life and in your education.
The more I dedicate my time to two things, the more they fill my life with ever-increasing pleasure. The first is the sky above me, and the second is the moral law within me.
We cannot imagine the scope of our ignorance, just as a blind man cannot imagine darkness until he can see.
Prayer is understood as an inner formal religious service, a service to ask and achieve some compassion for yourself from the higher force; this is a misconception. On the other hand, the desire of our heart to please God with all our actions - this is the spirit of real prayer which should always exist in us.
The kingdom of God on earth is the final purpose and desire of humankind.
The difference between religions—what a strange expression. Certainly there can be different faiths, and beliefs in historical events which are passed from one generation to another to strengthen religion; in the same way there can be different religious books—the Sutras, Vedas, Koran, etc. But there can be only one religion, and it is real for all times.
There is in our soul something that, if we see it as it is and give it the proper attention, will always give us great pleasure; this something is the moral disposition or quality which was given to us at our creation.
We live in an epoch of discipline, culture, and civilization, but not in an epoch of morality. In the present state, we can say that the happiness of the people grows, and yet the unhappiness of the people increases as well. How can we make people happy when they are not educated to have high morals? They do not become wise.
I cannot cause any improvement in anyone except with the help of the goodness and kindness which already is inherent in this person.
Virtue always lasts longer than other qualities, and it always starts from the beginning.
Love of goodness and faith in immortality are inseparable. Nobody can say that he knows what the afterlife will be. Our beliefs are based not on logical proofs but on moral ones and therefore I cannot say that God exists and I am immortal, but I can say that God exists and that my “self” is immortal. This means that my faith in God is so closely connected with my nature that this faith cannot be separated from me.