Immanuel Kant Quotes

All that is required for this enlightenment is freedom; and particularly the least harmful of all that may be called freedom, namely, the freedom for man to make public use of his reason in all matters. But I hear people clamor on all sides: Don't argue! The officer says: Don't argue, drill! The tax collector: Don't argue, pay! The pastor: Don't argue, believe! The public use of a man's reason must be free at all times, and this alone can bring enlightenment among men...

Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers.

Only the educated are free.

Thus the public use of reason and freedom is nothing but a dessert, a sumptuous dessert.

The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.

An unexamined faith is not worth having, for fundamentalism and uncritical certitude entail the rejection of one of the great human gifts: that of free will, of the liberty to make up our own minds based on evidence and tradition and reason.

Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.

Free thought is a virtue that cannot be crushed

The public use of man's reason must always be free, and it alone can cause enlightenment.

Our forefathers found the evils of free thinking more to be endured than the evils of inquest or suppression. This is because thoughtful, bold and independent minds are essential to the wise and considered self-government.

Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.

Take away the ability of an intelligent, principled, hard-working mind to get it wrong, and you take away the whole thing.

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know!

Freedom, the first-born of science.

If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.

Enlightenment is man's leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.

Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely soley upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.

In true democracy every man and woman is taught to think for himself or herself.

The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow-men.

It is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles; and it is honorable for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.

Men and women with freed minds may often be mistaken, but they are seldom fooled. They may be influenced, but they cannot be intimidated. They may be perplexed, but they will never be lost.

Education keeps the key of life; and liberal education insures the first conditions of freedom,--namely, adequate knowledge and accustomed thought.

As soon as you can say what you think and not what some other person has thought for you, you are on the way to being a remarkable man.