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

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

For peace to reign on Earth, humans must evolve into new beings who have learned to see the whole first.

Freedom is the opposite of necessity.

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.

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.

The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.

Except when physically restrained, a person is least free or dignified when he is under threat of punishment, and unfortunately most people often are.

It was the kind of love that, sooner or later, cornered you into a choice: either you tore free or you stayed and withstood its rigor even as it squeezed you into something smaller than yourself.

It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled.

Men and women yearners must realize their unity even while in the flesh; not by communion of the flesh, but by the Will to Freedom from the flesh and all the impediments it places in their way to perfect Unity and Holy Understanding.

I love to reinvent myself, and that’s because I am a very free person. I do what I feel, and I love who I am.

Such is the nature of crowds: either they are humble and servile or arrogant and dominating. They are incapable of making moderate use of freedom, which is the middle course, or of keeping it.

Leaving was the hardest most liberating act of self preservation and self love I did.