"He combines all duties in one universal rule , namely: Perform your duty for no motive other than unconditioned esteem for duty itself, i.e., love God above all else; and in a particular rule, that, namely, which concerns man’s external relation to other men as universal duty: Love every one as yourself, i.e., further his welfare from good-will that is immediate and not derived from motives of self-advantage. These commands are not mere laws of virtue but precepts of holiness which we ought to pursue, and the very pursuit of them is called virtue. Accordingly he destroys the hope of all who intend to wait upon this moral goodness quite passively, with their hands in their laps, as though it were a heavenly gift which descends from on high. He who leaves unused the natural predisposition to goodness which lies in human nature in lazy confidence that a higher moral influence will no doubt supply the moral character and completeness which he lacks, is confronted with the threat that even the good which, by virtue of his natural predisposition, he may have done, will not be allowed to stand him in stead because of this neglect ."
React to this quote
More by Immanuel Kant
See allResonant Thoughts
"An immense role in the development of logic, and in preparing the ground for modern views on its subject matter, a role far from fully appreciated, was played by Spinoza. Like Leibniz, Spinoza rose hi…"
"The Communist dream of a great new "one world" of the future is based on the belief that a regime of violence and coercion under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat would permit the establishment of a…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"As the light of morning strikes now one peak and then another, some being illuminated while others are in t…"
— Felix Adler"原文:Character is what you are in the dark."
— Dwight L. Moody"Nothing penetrates the liberal's sense of moral outrage."
— Bill Whittle"The anger that you see expressed out there in Los Angeles, in my district this evening, is a righteous ange…"
— Maxine Waters": Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence, of this virtue."
— Joseph Addison"Any system of economics is bankrupt if it sees either value or virtue in unemployment. We simply cannot che…"
— Jimmy Carter