The Moral Law & Categorical Imperative

• “Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.”
• “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.”
• “Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.”

Enlightenment & Reason

• “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.”
• “Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.”
• “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.”
• “But only he who, himself enlightened, is not afraid of shadows.”
• “Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.”
• “Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person.”
• “Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.”

The Duty of Self-Improvement

• “Man’s duty is to improve himself; to cultivate his mind; and, when he finds himself going astray, to bring the moral law to bear upon himself.”
• “The first endeavour in moral education is the formation of character.”
• “Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality.”
• “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”

Personal growth, Autonomy & Independent Thinking

• “Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own intelligence!”
• “Sapere Aude! Have courage to use your own understanding!”
• “Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person.”
• “Reason does not work instinctively, but requires trial, practice, and instruction in order to gradually progress from one level of insight to another.”
• “Look closely. The beautiful may be small.”
• “Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and wild.”

Purposeful Action & Mastery

• “The busier we are, the more acutely we feel that we live, the more conscious we are of life.”
• “Man can become man only by education… education shapes not just knowledge, but human character and identity.”
• “If education is to develop human nature so that it may attain the object of its being, it must involve the exercise of judgment.”
• “Patience is the strength of the weak, impatience is the weakness of the strong.”
• “Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.”

Life & Practical Wisdom

• “Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.”
• “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”
• “One who makes himself a worm cannot complain afterwards if people step on him.”
• “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”
• “The busier we are, the more acutely we feel that we live, the more conscious we are of life.”