Society and the World

Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.

Ich bin ein Berliner.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.

We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing—to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. Not a select party.

To one who has been long in city pent,

Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,

Do not all charms fly

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made.

So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as means only.

So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as means only.

There is an imperative which commands a certain conduct immediately, without having as its condition any other purpose to be attained by it. This imperative is Categorical … This imperative may be called that of Morality.

I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law.

I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law.

Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more seriously reflection concentrates upon them: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me.

Nothing in the world—indeed nothing even beyond the world—can possibly be conceived which could be called good without qualification except a good will.

It’s often better to be in chains than to be free.

Someone must have traduced Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.