Ludwig Feuerbach Quotes
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach was a German anthropological philosopher and one of the most influential of the Young Hegelians. After training under Hegel at Berlin and a brief university career cut short by the publication of his early Thoughts on Death and Immortality, he spent most of his life as a private scholar in rural Bavaria. The quotes below are attributed to Ludwig Feuerbach, organized by topic.
Browse Ludwig Feuerbach by topic
Ludwig Feuerbach on Death
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“Aber freilich für diese Zeit, welche das Bild der Sache, die Kopie dem Original, die Vorstellung der Wirklichkeit, den Schein dem Wesen vorzieht … denn heilig ist ihr nur die Illusion, profan aber die Wahrheit.”
The Essence of Christianity(1841) | The present age... prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence... for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane. Prefa
Ludwig Feuerbach on God
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Attributed to Ludwig Feuerbach:
“Theology is anthropology.”
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Attributed to Ludwig Feuerbach:
“God is the projection of the human heart.”
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Attributed to Ludwig Feuerbach:
“What yesterday was still religion is no longer such today.”
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“God did not, as the Bible says, make man in His image; on the contrary man, as I have shown in The Essence of Christianity , made God in his image.”
Lectures on the Essence of Religion(1851) | Lecture XX, see Lectures on the Essence of Religion . Transl. Ralph Manheim . New York: Harper & Row. 1967. p. 187. German: Vorlesungen über das Wesen der Religion . Leipzig: Wigand. 1851. p. 241. -
“To enrich God, man must become poor; that God may be all, man must be nothing.”
The Essence of Christianity(1841)
Ludwig Feuerbach on Knowledge
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“Der Mensch ist, was er ißt.”
Man is what he eats. | Die Naturwissenschaft und die Revolution [Natural science and the revolution] (1850), repeated in Das Geheimnis des Opfers, ober der Mensch ist was er ißt [ The Mystery of Sacrifice, or Man is What He Eats ] (1862) -
“Every presentation of philosophy, whether oral or written, is to be taken and can only be taken in the sense of a means. Every system is only an expression or image of reason, and hence only an object of reason, an object which reason—a living power that procreates itself in new thinking beings—distinguishes from itself and posits as an object of criticism. Every system that is not recognized and ”
Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 67
Ludwig Feuerbach on Love
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Attributed to Ludwig Feuerbach:
“Friendship is the highest form of religion.”
Ludwig Feuerbach on Mind
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“Demonstrating is therefore only the means through which I strip my thought of the form of “mine-ness” so that the other person may recognize it as his own.”
Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 66 -
“Every presentation of philosophy, whether oral or written, is to be taken and can only be taken in the sense of a means. Every system is only an expression or image of reason, and hence only an object of reason, an object which reason—a living power that procreates itself in new thinking beings—distinguishes from itself and posits as an object of criticism. Every system that is not recognized and appropriated as just a means, limits and warps the mind for it sets up the indirect and formal thought in the place of the direct, original and material thought.”
Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 67 -
“All presentation, all demonstration—and the presentation of thought is demonstration—has, according to its original determination—and this is all that matters to us—the cognitive activity of the other person as its ultimate aim.”
Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 67 -
“The power of thought is the light of knowledge, the power of will is the energy of character, the power of heart is love. Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man.”
The Essence of Christianity(1841) | Introduction, Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 99 -
“Hegel … proceeds abstractly from the pre-existence of the intellect. … He does not appeal to the intellect within us.”
Towards a Critique ofHegel’sPhilosophy (1839) | Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 68 -
“We have busied ourselves and contented ourselves long enough with speaking and writing; now at last we demand that the word become flesh, the spirit matter; we are as sick of political as we are of philosophical idealism; we are determined to become political materialists.”
Lectures on the Essence of Religion(1851) | Lecture I, Occasion and Context
Ludwig Feuerbach on Nature
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“Man is what he eats.”
Der Mensch ist, was er ißt.
Ludwig Feuerbach on Politics
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“Can any good come out of Nazareth ?" This is always the question of the wiseacres and the knowing ones. But the good, the new, comes from exactly that quarter whence it is not looked for, and is always something different from what is expected. Everything new is received with contempt, for it begins in obscurity. It becomes a power unobserved.”
As quoted in "Voices of the New Time" as translated by C. C. Shackford in The Radical Vol. 7 (1870), p. 329
Ludwig Feuerbach on Time
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“Hegel determines and presents only the most striking differences of various religions, philosophies, time and peoples, and in a progressive series of stages, but he ignores all that is common and identical in all of them. … His system knows only subordination and succession; coordination and coexistence are unknown to it.”
Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 54 -
“The history of philosophical system is the picture gallery of reason.”
Towards a Critique ofHegel’sPhilosophy (1839) | Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 68
Ludwig Feuerbach on Truth
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“To theology, … only what it holds sacred is true, whereas to philosophy, only what holds true is sacred.”
Lectures on the Essence of Religion(1851) | Lecture II, R. Manheim, trans. (1967), p. 11 -
“The present age... prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence... for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane.”
The Essence of Christianity(1841) -
“I would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with falsehood.”
The Essence of Christianity(1841)