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

What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?

Dignity is a value that creates irreplaceability.

Give me matter, and I will construct a world out of it!

Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another.

The history of nature, begins with good, for it is God’s work; the history of freedom begins with badness, for it is man’s work.

Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.

If the truth shall kill them, let them die.

Experience may teach us what is, but never that it cannot be otherwise.

It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience.

Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and wild.

Treat people as an end, and never as a means to an end.

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.

What might be said of things in themselves, separated from all relationship to our senses, remains for us absolutely unknown.

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.

The virtue of a democratic system with a [constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech] is that it readily enables the people, over time, to be persuaded that what they took for granted is not so, and to change their laws accordingly.

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate your attention to other tasks.

No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.

When I thought I lost everything, all I lost were old stories, the ones that didn’t belong within me anymore. Perhaps, it wasn’t that I lost anything, It’s that I was getting rid of what was no longer right for me.

The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.

You have the opportunity to free fall in this moment between birth and death, right through the hole of your fear, into the unthreatenable openess which is the source of your gifts. The superior man lives as this spontaneous sacrifice of love.

Free yourself from the complexities and drama of your life. Simplify. Look within. Within ourselves we all have the gifts and talents we need to fulfill the purpose we’ve been blessed with.