“The master is himself an animal, and needs a master.”
Sixth Thesis
Variant translations:
Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.
Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be built.
From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.
Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)
Context: The master is himself an animal, and needs a master. Let him begin it as he will, it is not to be seen how he can procure a magistracy which can maintain public justice and which is itself just, whether it be a single person or a group of several elected persons. For each of them will always abuse his freedom if he has none above him to exercise force in accord with the laws. The highest master should be just in himself, and yet a man. This task is therefore the hardest of all; indeed, its complete solution is impossible, for from such crooked wood as man is made of, nothing perfectly straight can be built. That it is the last problem to be solved follows also from this: it requires that there be a correct conception of a possible constitution, great experience gained in many paths of life, and — far beyond these — a good will ready to accept such a constitution. Three such things are very hard, and if they are ever to be found together, it will be very late and after many vain attempts.
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Immanuel Kant 200
German philosopher 1724–1804Related quotes
“He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.”
“The hungry slave
Brings danger to his master, not himself.”
Non sibi sed domino grauis est quae seruit egestas.
Book III, line 152 (tr. E. Ridley).
Pharsalia
“More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself.”
As quoted in Washington's Birthday : Its History, Observance, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse (1918) by Robert Haven Schauffler http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/5/1/4/15140/15140.htm, p. 143.
Context: More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself. If there be one quality more than another in his character which may exercise a useful control over the men of the present hour, it is the total disregard of self when in the most elevated positions for influence and example.
“He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.”
The Bondman (1623), Act I, scene iii http://books.google.com/books?id=K0cNAQAAMAAJ&q=%22He+that+would+govern+others+first+should+be+the+master+of+himself%22&pg=PA193#v=onepage.
“Master, master singer,
Master of words unspoken”
A Man From Lebanon: Nineteen Centuries Afterward
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
Context: Master, master singer,
Master of words unspoken,
Seven times was I born, and seven times have I died
Since your last hasty visit and our brief welcome.
And behold I live again,
Remembering a day and a night among the hills,
When your tide lifted us up.
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!
“Shihonage is the foundation of Aikido. All you ever need to master is shihonage.”
Shihonage (or Shiho-nage the "Four Corner Throw") is a technique of maintaining control over an opponent in Aikido, as quoted in Aikido Shugyo (1991) by Gōzō Shioda, p. 61