German Philosophy Quotes
30 quotes
German Philosophy
Profound insights from Germany's greatest philosophical minds
30 Quotes
Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.
— Letter to Ruge, September 1843
Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself
— Existentialism Is a Humanism (Lecture, 1946)
Guilt presupposes freedom.
— Being and Time (1927), §58
To will that others should not know what one is, is perhaps the most powerful of all motives in human behavior
— The World as Will and Representation (1818), Book 4, §66
Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells.
— Letter on Humanism
Existence precedes essence.
— Existentialism Is a Humanism (1946) – Engaged deeply with German existential philosophy
Dread is the dizziness of freedom
— The Concept of Anxiety (1844), Part 1, Chapter 2
I am I and my circumstance; and, if I do not save it, I do not save myself.
— Meditations on Quixote, Chapter 1
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
— Existentialism Is a Humanism
We can only become what we are, by the radical and deep-seated refusal of what others have wished to make us.
— Existentialism Is a Humanism, 1946 lecture
Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality
— Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Transcendental Aesthetic
Seek not the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions
— Philosophy of Existence (1938)
Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.
— Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820)
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world
— Studies in Pessimism
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
— Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Proposition 5.6
Art is the sensuous presentation of ideas.
— Lectures on Aesthetics (c. 1823-1829)
Have courage to use your own reason! – that is the motto of enlightenment.
— An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784)
The self is a relation which relates itself to its own self
— Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), Section on Self-Consciousness
The real is rational and the rational is real.
— Preface to the Philosophy of Right
We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.
— Critique of Pure Reason, Transcendental Aesthetic
To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great
— Lectures on the Philosophy of History
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
— Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part I
He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster
— Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
Only in the leap does the dancer comprehend
— What Is Called Thinking? (1954)
The greater part of our actions and desires is bound up with imitation
— Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandtschaften)
Being determines consciousness
— A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859), Preface
Invisible threads are the strongest ties
— Thus Spoke Zarathustra
All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
— Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 211
The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk
— Preface to Philosophy of Right
I must find a truth that is true for me, the idea for which I can live and die
— Concluding Unscientific Postscript