Kant, Immanuel (1996), pages 181-182

Money is the password, and all doors, which are closed to the man of lesser means, fly open to those whom Plutus favors. The invention of money, which has no other usefulness (or at least it should not have any) except for the commercial exchange of the products of man's industry, now serves all that is physically good among men. Especially after money was represented by metal, it has produced avarice which, finally, without indulgence, but by its mere possession, and even with the resolution (of the stingy) not to spend it, still contains a power which people believe can sufficiently compensate for the lack of any other power.

— Immanuel Kant

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Money is the password, and all doors, which are closed to the man of lesser means, fly open to those whom Plutus favors. The invention of money, which has no other usefulness (or at least it should not have any) except for the commercial exchange of the products of man's industry, now serves all that is physically good among men. Especially after money was represented by metal, it has produced avarice which, finally, without indulgence, but by its mere possession, and even with the resolution (of the stingy) not to spend it, still contains a power which people believe can sufficiently compensate for the lack of any other power." in the context of "Kant, Immanuel (1996), pages 181-182" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Immanuel Kant" (Quotes, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798): Book deriving from lectures he delivered annually between 1772/73 and 1795/96, see Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View and Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (by Michel Foucault)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Immanuel Kant

About Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804), born Emanuel Kant, was a German philosopher.