If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on. - Immanuel Kant

...Ethical laws cannot be thought of as emanating originally merely from the will of this superior being as statutes, which, had he not first commanded them, would perhaps not be binding, for then they would not be ethical laws and the duty proper to them would not be the free duty of virtue but the coercive duty of law.

Duas coisas enchem o ânimo de admiração: o céu estrelado acima de mim, e a lei moral dentro de mim; ambas não estão fora do meu horizonte; antes, vejo-as perante mim e religo-as imediatamente com a consciência de minha existência. A primeira começa no lugar que eu ocupo no mundo e no exterior. A segunda começa no meu invisível eu, na minha personalidade e me coloca num mundo que tem a verdadeira infinidade; o que eleva infinitamente o meu valor como inteligência na qual a lei moral me revela uma vida independente da animalidade de todo mundo sensível.

Nature has willed that man should, by himself, produce everything that goes beyond the mechanical ordering of his animal existence, and that he should partake of no other happiness or perfection than that which he himself, independently of instinct, has created by his own reason.