The Story of Philosophy

by Will Durant

And an action is good not because it has good results, or because it is wise, but because it is done in obedience to this inner sense of duty, this moral law that does not come from our personal experience, but legislates imperiously and à priori for all our behavior, past, present, and future. The only thing unqualifiedly good in this world is a good will—the will to follow the moral law, regardless of profit or loss for ourselves. Never mind your happiness; do your duty. “Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.”30 Let us seek the happiness in others; but for ourselves, perfection—whether it bring us happiness or pain.31 To achieve perfection in yourself and happiness in others, “so act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of another, in every case as an end, never only as a means”:

Kant