“All human cognition begins with intuitions, proceeds from thence to conceptions, and ends with ideas.”

Give me matter and I will build a world out of it.

The possession of power inevitably spoils the free use of reason.

Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.

Heaven has given human beings three things to balance the odds of life: hope, sleep, and laughter.

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

The cultivation of reason leads humanity sooner to misery than happiness.

Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.

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

One who makes himself a worm cannot complain afterwards if people step on him.

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

The busier we are, the more acutely we feel that we live, the more conscious we are of life.

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

Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person.

Simply to acquiesce in skepticism can never suffice to overcome the restlessness of reason.

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

The main point of enlightenment is man’s release from his self-caused immaturity, primarily in matters of religion.