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The people naturally adhere most to doctrines which demand the least self-exertion and the least use of their own reason, and which can best accommoda...more

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An action, to have moral worth, must be done from duty.

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The death of dogma is the birth of morality.

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If we were to suppose that mankind never can or will be in a better condition, it seems impossible to justify by any kind of theodicy the mere fact th...more

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Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.

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Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry h...more

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A good will is good not because of what it performs or effects, not by its aptness for the attainment of some proposed end, but simply by virtue of th...more

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...[N]ature generally in the distribution of her capacities has adapted the means to the end... [so nature's] true destination must be to produce a wi...more

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...[T]o be unfaithful to my maxim of prudence may often be very advantageous to me, although to abide by it is certainly safer.

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In the physical constitution of an organized being, that is, a being adapted suitably to the purposes of life, we assume it as a fundamental principle...more

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To behold virtue in her proper form is nothing else but to contemplate morality stripped of all admixture of sensible things and of every spurious orn...more

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The sight of a being who is not adorned with a single feature of a pure and good will, enjoying unbroken prosperity, can never give pleasure to an imp...more

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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 ...more

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Without man and his potential for moral progress, the whole of reality would be a mere wilderness, a thing in vain, and have no final purpose.

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Only the descent into the hell of self-knowledge can pave the way to godliness.