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Even if, by some especially unfortunate fate or by the niggardly provision of stepmotherly nature, [the good will] should be wholly lacking in the pow...more

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On the other hand, the moral law, although it gives no such prospect, does provide a fact absolutely inexplicable from any data of the world of sense ...more

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By this freedom the will of a rational being, as belonging to the sensuous world, recognizes itself to be, like all other efficient causes, necessaril...more

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The true religion is to be posited not in the knowledge or confession of what God allegedly does or has done for our salvation, but in what we must do...more

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The whole interest of my reason, whether speculative or practical, is concentrated in the three following questions: What can I know? What should I do...more

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Human beings are never to be treated as a means but always as ends.

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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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[It] is nevertheless better than the theological concept, of deriving morality from a divine, all-perfect will, not merely because we do not intuit th...more

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Thus he has two standpoints from which he can consider himself...: first, as belonging to the world of sense, under the laws of nature (heteronomy), a...more

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What is more, we cannot do morality a worse service than by seeing to derive it from examples. Every example of it presented to me must first itself b...more

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...in its practical purpose the footpath of freedom is the only one on which it is possible to make use of reason in our conduct. Hence it is as impos...more

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Inexperienced in the course of world affairs and incapable of being prepared for all the chances that happen in it, I ask myself only 'Can you also wi...more

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Innocence is a splendid thing, only it has the misfortune not to keep very well and to be easily misled.

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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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An action done from duty has its moral worth, not in the purpose to be attained by it, but in the maxim according with which it is decided upon; it de...more