Immanuel Kant Quotes

Our search for such [moral] principles can start with . . . the unconditional imperative to acknowledge every person as a person. If we ask for the contents given by this absolute, we find, first, something negative-the command not to treat a person as a thing. This seems little, but it is much. It is the core of the principle of justice.

Man must never be treated as a means to the end of the state, but always as an end within himself.

Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.

Love says respect the other as an end unto himself or herself; never use the other as a means. Nobody is a means for you, everybody is an end. But then ambition will flop, and our whole educational system depends on ambitiousness, our politics depends on ambition, our religions depend on ambition.

Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.

All I am really promoting in the books is the Golden Rule, which I hope everybody knows to be "do as you would be done by." It has one or 2 flaws, but it is a good soundbite. Evil starts when you treat other people as things. There are perhaps worse crimes, but they begin when you treat other people as things.

One cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing one's own.

Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.

And every human being is precious.

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

Every human being, including those who belong to the enemy, have rights.

Every person has to be respected.

The human being is to be respected and defended, not protected like a bird or a river.

I grew up with the thought that I wanted to treat people the way I'd like to be treated, and I think if you do that, it's pretty hard to go wrong.

I would teach my child to respect what is right - the word right is a difficult word to use - I would teach him to respect the intrinsic value of things. Do you see what I mean? The true proportion of things.

I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things.

One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue.

To treat anyone as if they were less than human, less than a brother or a sister, no matter what they have done, is to contravene the very laws of our humanity.

Sportsmanship is making sure you have respect for the guy you're playing across from.

Humans treat animals as things that exist as means to human ends. That's morally wrong. Sexism promotes the idea that women are things that exist as means to the ends of men. That's morally wrong. We need to stop treating all persons - whether human or nonhuman - as things.

Tsze-Kung asked, “Is there one word with which to act in accordance throughout a lifetime?” The Master said, “Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.

The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others.

Ethics, as has been well said, are the finest fruits of humanity, but they are not its roots

The only way to show a true respect for God is to act morally while ignoring God’s existence.