“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”

Settle, for sure and universally, what conduct will promote the happiness of a rational being.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

Since the human race’s natural end is to make steady cultural progress, its moral end is to be conceived as progressing toward the better. And this progress may well be occasionally interrupted, but it will never be broken off.

The death of dogma is the birth of morality.

The outcome of an act commonly influences our judgment about its rightness, even though the former was uncertain, while the latter is certain.

Art is purposiveness without purpose.

He who would know the world must first manufacture it.

We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without.

It is impossible to conceive anything at all in the world, or even out of it, which can be taken as good without qualification, except a good will.

I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith.

If God should really speak to man, man could still never know that it was God speaking.

How things may be in themselves, without regard to the representations through which they affect us, is utterly beyond the sphere of our cognition.

Dare to think!

But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.

Look closely. The beautiful may be small.

Judge not unless you judge yourself

We must never forget that the natural environment is a collective good, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone.

The courage to encounter one another and extend a hand of friendship is a pathway of peace and harmony for humanity.

They knew now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for, and sometimes attain, it is human love.

Man is not on the earth solely for his own happiness. He is there to realize great things for humanity.

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.

I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.

I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals and I loathe humanity for its failure to live up to these possibilities.