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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.

— Johann Gottlieb Fichte The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806)

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Freedom

More quotes by Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Upon the progress of knowledge the whole progress of the human race is immediately dependent: he who retards that, hinders this also.

The Vocation of the Scholar (1794)

Humanity may endure the loss of everything: all its possessions may be torn away without infringing its true dignity; — all but the possibility of improvement.

The Vocation of the Scholar (1794)

By conscience alone comes truth and reality into my representations.

The Vocation of Man (1800)

The law of the transcendental world must, therefore, be a Will.

The Vocation of Man (1800)

A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not.

letter (1791)

All Johann Gottlieb Fichte quotes →

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Johann Gottlieb Fichte (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.