Philosophy Quotes by Immanuel Kant

Only the descent into the hell of self-knowledge can pave the way to godliness.

— Immanuel Kant

The business of philosophy is not to give rules, but to analyze the private judgments of common reason.

— Immanuel Kant

“Give me matter and i will build a world out of it.”

— Immanuel Kant

Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.

— Immanuel Kant

“...[P]hysics... [is] the philosophy of nature, so far as it is based on empirical laws.”

— Immanuel Kant

It is precisely in knowing its limits that philosophy consists.

— Immanuel Kant

“Settle, for sure and universally, what conduct will promote the happiness of a rational being.”

— Immanuel Kant

“He who would know the world must first manufacture it.”

— Immanuel Kant

“The whole interest of my reason, whether speculative or practical, is concentrated in the three following questions: What can I know? What…

— Immanuel Kant

Human freedom is realised in the adoption of humanity as an end in itself, for the one thing that no-one can be…

— Immanuel Kant

“What might be said of things in themselves, separated from all relationship to our senses, remains for us absolutely unknown”

— Immanuel Kant

When I could have used a wife, I could not support one; and when I could support one, I no longer needed…

— Immanuel Kant

Upon the solution of this problem, or upon sufficient proof of the impossibility of synthetical knowledge a priori, depends the existence or…

— Immanuel Kant

Philosophy stands in need of a science which shall determine the possibility, principles, and extent of human knowledge à priori.

— Immanuel Kant

Philosophical knowledge is the knowledge gained by reason from concepts ; mathematical knowledge is the knowledge gained by reason from the construction…

— Immanuel Kant

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without…

— Immanuel Kant

“Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another.…

— Immanuel Kant

I freely admit that the remembrance of David Hume was the very thing that many years ago first interrupted my dogmatic slumber…

— Immanuel Kant

“True politics cannot take a single step without first paying homage to morals, and while politics itself is a difficult art, its…

— Immanuel Kant

That Logic has advanced in this sure course, even from the earliest times, is apparent from the fact that, since Aristotle, it…

— Immanuel Kant

The sum total of all possible knowledge of God is not possible for a human being, not even through a true revelation.…

— Immanuel Kant

Often war is waged only in order to show valor; thus an inner dignity is ascribed to war itself, and even some…

— Immanuel Kant

In the metaphysical elements of aesthetics the various nonmoral feelings are to be made use of; in the elements of moral metaphysics…

— Immanuel Kant

A philosophical attempt to work out a universal history according to a natural plan directed to achieving the civic union of the…

— Immanuel Kant

“Metaphysics... is nothing but the inventory of all we possess through pure reason, ordered systematically. Nothing here can escape us, because what…

— Immanuel Kant

“Skepticism is thus a resting-place for human reason, where it can reflect upon its dogmatic wanderings and make survey of the region…

— Immanuel Kant

“Would it not therefore be wiser in moral concerns to acquiesce in the judgement of common reason, or at most only to…

— Immanuel Kant

“(On the seeming futility of metaphysics) Why then has nature afflicted our reason with the restless striving for such a path, as…

— Immanuel Kant

“To know what questions may reasonably be asked is already a great and necessary proof of sagacity and insight. For if a…

— Immanuel Kant

“It is in these very items of knowledge which go beyond the world of senses, where experience can neither guide nor correct…

— Immanuel Kant

“...[T]here is no art in being intelligible if one renounces all thoroughness of insight; but also it produces a disgusting medley of…

— Immanuel Kant

“We have seen, therefore, that I am not allowed even to *assume*, for the sake of the necessary practical use of my…

— Immanuel Kant

“Metaphysics, a completely isolated and speculative branch of rational knowledge which is raised above all teachings of experience and rests on concepts…

— Immanuel Kant

“[At the beginning of modern science], a light dawned on all those who study nature. They comprehended that reason has insight only…

— Immanuel Kant

“Our knowledge springs from two fundamental sources of our mind; the first is to receive representations (receptivity of impressions), the second is…

— Immanuel Kant

“A similar experiment may be tried in metaphysics as regards the *intuition* of objects. If the intuition had to conform to the…

— Immanuel Kant

“It will be seen how there can be the idea of a special science, the *critique of pure reason* as it may…

— Immanuel Kant

“The purpose of this critique of pure speculative reason consists in the attempt to change the old procedure of metaphysics, and to…

— Immanuel Kant

“Finer feeling, which we now wish to consider, is chiefly of two kinds: the feeling of the *sublime* and that of the…

— Immanuel Kant

“On the other hand, the moral law, although it gives no such prospect, does provide a fact absolutely inexplicable from any data…

— Immanuel Kant