6 quotes
Instinct is blind;—a consciousness without insight. Freedom, as the opposite of Instinct, is thus seeing, and clearly conscious of the grounds of its activity.
The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806)
The End of the Life of Mankind on Earth is this,—that in this Life they may order all their relations with FREEDOM according to REASON.
The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806)
An infirmity which affects the whole race, is no proper object for the scorn of an individual who belongs to that race, and who, before he could expose it, must himself have been its slave.
The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806)
Every other art,—as poetry, music, painting,—may be practised without the process showing forth the rules according to which it is conducted ;—but in the self-cognizant art of the philosopher, no step can be taken without declaring the grounds upon which it proceeds.
The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806)
Science raises itself above all Ages and all Times, embracing and apprehending the ONE UNCHANGING TIME as the higher source of all Ages and Epochs, and grasping that vast idea in its free, unbounded comprehension.
The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806)
Each individual imagines that he can exist, live, think, and act for himself, and believes that he himself is the thinking principle of his thoughts; whereas in truth he is but a single ray of the ONE universal and necessary Thought.
The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806)