Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a portion of mankind, after nature has long since discharged them from external direction (naturaliter maiorennes), nevertheless remains under lifelong tutelage, and why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so easy not to be of age. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if I can only pay - others will easily undertake the irksome work for me. That the step to competence is held to be very dangerous by the far greater portion of mankind.. Immanuel Kant
About This Quote

In 1627, Francis Bacon wrote a book called "The Advancement of Learning," in which he discussed the role of a tutor or a parent. He wrote that a young man should be given the opportunity to learn on his own, but if he is unable to do so, he will need guidance. Bacon also wrote about how it is impossible not to be of age. If a person is going through life with someone else who is taking care of all his or her needs, that person will never be able to develop certain key skills on their own. In this quote from Bacon, he makes it clear that being on your own is not an easy feat for some people.

Source: An Answer To The Question: What Is Enlightenment?

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars, points of light and reason..And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone,... - Stephenie Meyer
  2. The heart has its reasons which reason knows not. - Blaise Pascal
  3. One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too. - Friedrich Nietzsche
  4. Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover and the poet Are of imagination all compact: One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, That is, the madman: the lover,... - William Shakespeare
  5. Cassia.I know which life is my real one now, no matter what happens. It’s the one with you. For some reason, knowing that even one person knows my story makes things different. Maybe it’s like the poem says. Maybe this is my way of not... - Ally Condie
More Quotes By Immanuel Kant
  1. One who makes himself a worm cannot complain afterwards if people step on him.
  2. Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
  3. Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it...
  4. Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
  5. An age cannot bind itself and ordain to put the succeeding one into such a condition that it cannot extend its (at best very occasional) knowledge , purify itself of errors, and progress in general enlightenment. That would be a crime against human nature, the...
Related Topics