Skip to content

Immanuel Kant Quotes

1724–1804 Germany

Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804), born Emanuel Kant, was a German philosopher.

Germany
Academics
Anthropologists
Logicians
Non-fiction authors

Also known as: Kant, Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Pure Reason

Random Immanuel Kant quote

134 quotes

However, he who makes himself a worm cannot complain afterwards that he gets stepped on.

Metaphysics of Morals (1797)

Godlessness is a kind of shameless wickedness which bids defiance to the punishments that the idea of God inspires in us.

Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.

Eternal Peace (1795)

The master is himself an animal, and needs a master.

Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)

He must not be obliged to dissimulate, he must acquire immediate horror of lies, must learn so to respect the rights of men that they become an insurmountable wall for him.

The Educational Theory of Immanuel Kant (1904)

The wish to talk to God is absurd. We cannot talk to one we cannot comprehend — and we cannot comprehend God; we can only believe in Him. The uses of prayer are thus only subjective.

A lecture at Königsberg (1775)

Is it reasonable to assume a purposiveness in all the parts of nature and to deny it to the whole?

Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)

Metaphysics has as the proper object of its enquiries three ideas only: God, freedom, and immortality.

Critique of Pure Reason (1781)

All human knowledge begins with intuitions, proceeds from thence to concepts, and ends with ideas.

Critique of Pure Reason (1781)

Have the courage to use your own understanding! This is the motto of the Enlightenment.

What is Enlightenment? (1784)

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

Metaphysics of Morals (1797)

Give me matter, and I will construct a world out of it!

Man must develop his tendency towards the good.

I am an investigator by inclination. I feel a great thirst for knowledge and an impatient eagerness to advance, also satisfaction at each progressive step.

The Educational Theory of Immanuel Kant (1904)

The death of dogma is the birth of morality.

Faith Or Fact (1897)

Human reason is by nature architectonic.

Critique of Pure Reason (1781)

Morality is thus the relation of actions to the autonomy of the will, that is, to a possible giving of universal law through its maxims.

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)

There is, therefore, only one categorical imperative. It is: Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals (1969)

There are three juridical attributes that inseparably belong to the citizen by right. These are

Science of Right (1797)

All natural capacities of a creature are destined to evolve completely to their natural end.

Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Immanuel Kant (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.