Immanuel Kant Quotes

May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law.

So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

Act so that the maxim of your act could be made the principle of a universal law.

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

My conscience is informed by reason. It's like Kant's categorical imperative: behave to others as you would wish they behaved to you.

In the kingdom of ends everything has either a price or a dignity. Whatever has a price can be replaced by something else as its equivalent; on the other hand, whatever is above all price, and therefore admits of no equivalent, has a dignity. But that which constitutes the condition under which alone something can be an end in itself does not have mere relative worth, i.e., price, but an intrinsic worth, i.e., a dignity.

All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.

A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself, without reference to any other purpose.

Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

The universal law of justice is: act externally in such a way that the free use of your will is compatible with the freedom of everyone according to a universal law.

There is a universal moral law, as distinct from a moral code, which consists of certain statements of fact about the nature of man, and by behaving in conformity with which, man may enjoy his true freedom.

Kant was probably the worst writer ever heard of on earth before Karl Marx. Some of his ideas were really quite simple, but he always managed to make them seem unintelligible. I hope he is in Hell.

Can any man have a higher notion of the rule of right and the eternal fitness of things?

The Golden Rule works like gravitation.

Absolutely speaking, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you is by no means a golden rule, but the best of current silver. An honest man would have but little occasion for it. It is golden not to have any rule at all in such a case.

Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.

Do not unto others that which is hateful unto thee.

It is possible to believe in progress as a fact without believing in progress as an ethical principle; but in the catechism of many Americans, the one goes with the other.

Goddammit. Yeah, I have. First, there's a huge difference between being arrested and being guilty. Second, see, the law changes and I don't. How I stand vis-à-vis the law at any given moment depends on the law. The law can change from state to state, from nation to nation, from city to city. I guess I have to go by a higher law. How's that? Yeah, I consider myself a road man for the lords of karma.

So, when on one side you hoist in Locke's head, you go over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant's and you come back again; but in very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! throw all these thunder-heads overboard, and then you will float light and right.

Moral: Don't try to Account for Anything.

No such individual would find the Golden Rule surprising in any way because at its base lies the foundation of most human interactions and exchanges and it can be found in countless texts throughout recorded history and from around the world - a testimony to its universality.

Golden Rule”: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.

The umbrella that I live under is that you must be truthful with everyone except when to do so would injure them or others.

The golden rule is to act fearlessly upon what one believes to be right.