I have always taken as the standard of the mode of teaching and writing, not the abstract, particular, professional philosopher, but universal man, that I have regarded man as the criterion of truth, and not this or that founder of a system, and have from the first placed the highest excellence of the philosopher in this, that he abstains, both as a man and as an author, from the ostentation of philosophy, i. e., that he is a philosopher only in reality, not formally, that he is a quiet philosopher, not a loud and still less a brawling one.
Ludwig FeuerbachIn the consciousness of the infinite, the conscious subject has for his object the infinity of his own nature.
Ludwig FeuerbachThe 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.
Ludwig FeuerbachWhat yesterday was still religion is no longer such today; and what today is atheism, tomorrow will be religion.
Ludwig FeuerbachMan first unconsciously and involuntarily creates God in his own image, and after this God consciously and voluntarily creates man in his own image.
Ludwig FeuerbachThe doctrine of foods is of great ethical and political significance. Food becomes blood, blood becomes heart and brain, thoughts and mind stuff. Human fare is the foundation of human culture and thought. Would you improve a nation? Give it, instead of declamations against sin, better food. Man is what he eats [Der Mensch ist, was er isst].
Ludwig FeuerbachChristianity set itself the goal of fulfilling manโs unattainable desires, but for that very reason ignored his attainable desires. By promising man eternal life, it deprived him of temporal life, by teaching him to trust in Godโs help it took away his trust in his own powers; by giving him faith in a better life in heaven, it destroyed his faith in a better life on earth and his striving to attain such a life. Christianity gave man what his imagination desires, but for that very reason failed to give him what he really and truly desires.
Ludwig Feuerbach