Quote by Immanuel Kant: “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it become universal law.”

Before you do something, ask whether it would be acceptable if everyone did the same thing. If you want to make an exception for yourself that you would not grant to others, something is wrong. This is Kant's way of making morality systematic and impartial rather than convenient.

Kant published the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals in 1785, attempting to establish ethics on purely rational grounds independent of religion or tradition. Europe was on the eve of the French Revolution, and questions about the foundations of moral and political authority were urgently alive.

German philosopher of the Enlightenment whose Critique of Pure Reason attempted to reconcile rationalism and empiricism and transformed Western philosophy. His ethical works, including the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, introduced the categorical imperative.