Fichte Quotes

Not alone to know, but to act according to thy knowledge, is thy destination,
proclaims the voice of my inmost soul. Not for indolent contemplation and study of thyself, nor for brooding over emotions of piety,
no, for action was existence given thee; thy actions, and thy actions alone, determine thy worth. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

By philosophy the mind of man comes to itself, and from henceforth rests on itself without foreign aid, and is completely master of itself, as the dancer of his feet, or the boxer of his hands. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

God is not the mere dead conception to which we have thus given utterance, but he is in himself pure Life. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

I know what I can know, and am not troubled about what I cannot know. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

In nearly all the nations of Europe, a powerful, hostile government is growing, and is at war with all the others, and sometimes oppresses the people in dreadful ways: It is Jewry ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Hindoo wisdom long ago regarded the world as the dream of Brahma. Must we hold with Fichte that it is the individual dream of each individual ego? Every fool would then be a cosmogonic poet producing the firework of the universe under the dome of the infinite. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Berkeley , Hume, Kant , Fichte , Hegel , James , Bergson all are united in one earnest attempt, the attempt to reinstate man with his high spiritual claims in a place of importance in the cosmic scheme. ~ David Hume

He who has no means of subsistence, has no duty to acknowledge or respect other people's property, considering that the principles of the social convenant have been violated to his prejudice. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us at least live so as to deserve it. ~ Immanuel Hermann Fichte

Men in the vehement pursuit of happiness grasp at the first object which offers to them any prospect of satisfaction, but immediately they turn an introspective eye and ask, 'Am I happy?' and at once from their innermost being a voice answers distinctly, 'No, you are as poor and as miserable as before.' Then they think it was the object that deceived them and turn precipitately to another. But the second holds as little satisfaction as the first…Wandering then through life restless and tormented, at each successive station they think that happiness dwells at the next, but when they reach it happiness is no longer there. In whatever position they may find themselves there is always another one which they discern from afar, and which but to touch, they think, is to find the wished delight, but when the goal is reached discontent has followed on the way stands in haunting constancy before them. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

My mind can take no hold on the present world, nor rest in it a moment, but my whole nature rushes onward with irresistible force towards a future and better state of being. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Upon the progress of knowledge the whole progress of the human race is immediately dependent: he who retards that, hinders this also. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

The correct relationship between the higher and lower classes, the appropriate mutual interaction between the two is, as such, the true underlying support on which the improvement of the human species rests. The higher classes constitute the mind of the single large whole of humanity; the lower classes constitute its limbs; the former are the thinking and designing [ Entwerfende ] part, the latter the executive part. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

What sort of philosophy one chooses depends on what sort of person one is. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

All death in nature is birth, and at the moment of death appears visibly the rising of life. There is no dying principle in nature, for nature throughout is unmixed life, which, concealed behind the old, begins again and develops itself. Death as well as birth is simply in itself, in order to present itself ever more brightly and more like to itself. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

A young woman faces the decision of whether to marry a certain man whom she loves but who has deeply rooted, traditional ideas concerning marriage, family life, and the roles of men and women in each. A sober assessment of her future tell the woman that each of the two alternatives offers real but contrasting goods. One life offers the possibility of a greater degree of personal independence, the chance to pursue a career, perhaps more risk and adventure, while the other offers the rewards of parenting, stability, and a life together with a man whom, after all, she is in love with. In order to choose in a self-determined mode the woman must realize that the decision she faces involves more than the choice between two particular actions; it is also a choice between two distinct identities. In posing the questions "Who am I? Which of the two lives is really me?" she asks herself not a factual question about her identity but a fundamental practical question about the relative values of distinct and incommensurable goods. The point I take to be implicit in Tugendhat's (and Fichte's) view of the practical subject is that it would be mistaken to suppose that the woman had at her disposal an already established hierarchy of values that she must simply consult in order to decide whether to marry. Rather, her decision, if self-determined, must proceed from a ranking of values that emerges only in the process of reflecting upon the kind of person she wants to be. ~ Frederick Neuhouser

Humanity may endure the loss of everything; all its possessions may be turned away without infringing its true dignity - all but the possibility of improvement. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

The aim of all government is to make all government superfluous. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

The majority of men could sooner be brought to believe themselves a piece of lava in the moon than to take themselves for a self. ~ J.G. Fichte

He who is firm in will molds the world to himself. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

To those who do not love God, all things must work together immediately for pain and torment, until, by means of the tribulation, they are led to salvation at last. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

The auspices for philosophy are bad if, when proceeding ostensibly on the investigation of truth, we start saying farewell to all uprightness, honesty and sincerity, and are intent only on passing ourselves off for what we are not. We then assume, like those three sophists [Fichte, Schelling and Hegel], first a false pathos, then an affected and lofty earnestness, then an air of infinite superiority, in order to impose where we despair of ever being able to convince. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Full surely there is a blessedness beyond the grave for those who have already entered on it here, and in no other form than that wherein they know it here, at any moment. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Nothing is more destructive of individual character than for a man to lose all faith in his own abilities for the prosecution of his work. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Here below is not the land of happiness: I know it now; it is only the land of toil, and every joy which comes to us is only to strengthen us for some greater labor that is to succeed. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

There is a continuum between science and philosophy. As Fichte said (but did not practice), philosophy should be the science of sciences. ~ Mario Bunge

The schools must fashion the person, and fashion him in such a way that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

To be happy is not the purpose of our being, but to deserve happiness. ~ Immanuel Hermann Fichte

We do not act because we know, but we know because we are destined for action; practical reason is the root of all reason. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte

The more narrow-minded a system is the more it will please worldly-wise people. Thus the system of the materialists, the doctrine of Helvetius and also Locke has recieved the most acclaim amongst his class. Thus Kant even now will find more followers than Fichte. ~ Novalis

My personal view is that such total planning by the state is an absolute good and not simply a relative good ... I do not myself think of the attitude I take as deriving from Marx - though this undoubtedly will be suggested - but from Fichte and Hegel. ~ John Grierson