11 quotes
The first philosophers were astronomers. The heavens remind man … that he is destined not merely to act, but also to contemplate.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)
The power of thought is the light of knowledge, the power of will is the energy of character, the power of heart is love. Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)
God is for man the commonplace book where he registers his highest feelings and thoughts, the genealogical album into which he enters the names of the things most dear and sacred to him.
The Essence of Christianity (1843)
To enrich God, man must become poor; that God may be all, man must be nothing.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)
The present age... prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence... for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)
I would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with falsehood.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)
What man calls Absolute Being, his God, is his own being. The power of the object over him is therefore the power of his own being. Thus, the power of the object of feeling is the power of feeling itself; the power of the object of reason is the power of reason itself; and the power of the object of will is the power of will itself.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)
...for stones, plants, and animals there is no God, but only for man.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)
Let it be remembered that atheism — at least in the sense of this work — is the secret of religion itself; that religion itself, not indeed on the surface, but fundamentally, not in intention or according to its own supposition, but in its heart, in its essence, believes in nothing else than the truth and divinity of human nature.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)
If therefore my work is negative, irreligious, atheistic, let it be remembered that atheism — at least in the sense of this work — is the secret of religion itself; that religion itself, not indeed on the surface, but fundamentally, not in intention or according to its own supposition, but in its heart, in its essence, believes in nothing else than the truth and divinity of human nature.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)
Religion is the dream of the human mind. But even in dreams we do not find ourselves in emptiness or in heaven, but on earth, in the realm of reality; we only see real things in the entrancing splendor of imagination and caprice, instead of in the simple daylight of reality and necessity.
The Essence of Christianity (1841)