Categorical Imperative Quotes

• A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself, without reference to any other purpose.

  Immanuel Kant

  Philosophical, Would Be, Purpose

  Immanuel Kant (1993). “Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals: with On a Supposed Right to Lie because of Philanthropic Concerns”, p.25, Hackett Publishing

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• Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.

  Immanuel Kant

  Mean, Voice, Numbers

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

  Immanuel Kant

  Time, Law, Should

  Immanuel Kant, James Wesley Ellington (1994). “Ethical Philosophy: The Complete Texts of Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, and Metaphysical Principles of Virtue, Part II of The Metaphysics of Morals, with On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns”, p.30, Hackett Publishing

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• We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

  Immanuel Kant

  Dog, Heart, Animal

  "True animal instinct", www.theguardian.com. September 2, 2005.

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• After the end of the Second World War it was a categorical imperative for us to declare that we renounced war forever in a central article of the new Constitution.

  Kenzaburo Oe

  War, Forever, World

  "Japan, The Ambiguous, and Myself". Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 7, 1994.

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  Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.

  Immanuel Kant

  Inspirational, Relationship, Integrity

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• It is not God's will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy

  Immanuel Kant

  Happiness, Happy, God

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• Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

  Immanuel Kant

  Life, Motivational, Success

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• There are moments in Life when keeping silent becomes a fault, and speaking an obligation. A civic duty, a moral challenge, a categorical imperative from which we cannot escape.

  Oriana Fallaci

  Challenges, Faults, Moral

  Oriana Fallaci (2002). “The Rage and the Pride”, Rizzoli International Publications

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• Poetry is an ethic. By ethic I mean a secret code of behavior, a discipline constructed and conducted according to the capabilities of a man who rejects the falsifications of the categorical imperative.

  Jean Cocteau

  Mean, Men, Discipline

  "Diary of an Unknown". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1988.

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• Early on, I learnt from the Russian intelligentsia that the only meaning of life lies in conscious participation in the making of history. The more I think of that, the more deeply true it seems to be. It follows that one must range oneself actively against everything that diminishes man, and involve oneself in all struggles which tend to liberate and enlarge him. This categorical imperative is by no way lessened by the fact that such an involvement is inevitably soiled by error: it is a worse error merely to live for oneself, caught within traditions which are soiled by inhumanity.

  Victor Serge

  Lying, Struggle, Men

  Victor Serge (2002). “Memoirs of a Revolutionary”, p.374, University of Iowa Press

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

  Immanuel Kant

  Knowledge, Understanding, Perception

  "Critique of Pure Reason" by Immanuel Kant, (B 730), (1781; 1787).

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• Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.

  Immanuel Kant

  Fear, Philosophical, Science

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• In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.

  Immanuel Kant

  Inspirational, Trust, Betrayal

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• Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.

  Immanuel Kant

  Mean, Humanity, Way

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

  Immanuel Kant

  Inspirational, Philosophical, Play

  "General Systems" Vol. 7-8, by he Society for the Advancement of General Systems Theory, (p. 11), 1962.

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• Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another.

  Immanuel Kant

  Maturity, Divine Guidance, Intelligence

  "Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?" by Immanuel Kant, translated by Lewis White Beck, 1784.

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• He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

  Immanuel Kant

  Heart, Men, Animal

  Immanuel Kant (1963). “Lectures on ethics”

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• There is nothing higher than reason.

  Immanuel Kant

  Knowledge, Reason, Higher

  Immanuel Kant (1896). “Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason”

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• All our knowledge begins with the senses...

  Immanuel Kant

  Knowledge, Reason, Senses

  "Critique of Pure Reason" by Immanuel Kant, (B 730), (1781; 1787).

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• All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

  Immanuel Kant

  Philosophy, Three, May

  Immanuel Kant (2013). “Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Pure Reason”, p.359, Read Books Ltd

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• If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

  Immanuel Kant

  Philosophical, Men, Complaining

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• God's command 'Go ye, and preach the gospel to every creature' was the categorical imperative. The question of personal safety was wholly irrelevant.

  Elisabeth Elliot

  Safety, Command, Creatures

  Elisabeth Elliot (2015). “Through Gates of Splendor”, p.175, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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• Kantian ethical theory distinguishes three levels: First, that of a fundamental principle (the categorical imperative, formulated in three main ways in Kant's Groundwork); second, a set of duties, not deduced from but derived from this principle, by way of its interpretation or specification, its application to the general conditions of human life - which Kant does in the Doctrine of virtue, the second main part of the Metaphysics of Morals; and then finally an act of judgment, through which these duties are applied to particular cases.

  Allen W. Wood

  Principles, Doe, Doctrine

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• There is only one categorical imperative in golf, and that is to hit the ball. There are no minor absolutes.

  Charles Walter Simpson

  Golf, Balls, Minors

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