In his book, The Cooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of
Ideas (New York: Knopf, 1991),
the late Isaiah Berlin presents the original German, a "more direct"
translation, and his preferred translation.

The German:  "Aus so kummen Holze, als woraus der Mensch gemackt ist, kann
nichts ganz Gerades gezimmert werden."

The "more direct" translation:  "Out of timber so crooked as that from
which man is made nothing entirely straight can be built."

Berlin's preferred translation:"Out of the crooked timber of humanity no
straight thing was ever made."

The SOURCE for Kant's utterance is given as "Immanueal Kant, 'Idee zu einer
allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbu"gerlicher Absicht' (1784)" (Berlin, 1991,
p. xi).

The Editor's Preface to Berlin's book includes the following:  "The volume
takes its title from Isaiah Berlin's preferred rendering of his favourite
quotation, from Kant:  'OUt of the crooked timber of humanity no straight
thing was ever made.'  He always ascribed this translation to R. G.
Collingwood, but it turns out that he has not left Coillingwood's version
untouched.  The quotation does not appear in Collingwood's published
writings, but among his unpublished papers there is a lecture on the
philosophy of history, dating from 1929, in which the following rendering
appears:  'Out of the cross-grained timber of human nature nothing quite
straight can be made.'  It seems likely that Isaiah Berlin attended the
lecture and was struck by this passage, which then matured in his memory"
(Henry Hardy, in Berlin, pp. vii-viii).






----------
> From: Lucas Sonnino <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Quotation
> Date: Monday, April 12, 1999 4:07 AM
>
> Greetings,
>
> Can anyone please confirm if the following quotation is authentic, and if
> so it's provenance?
>
> "From the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made."
-
> Immanuel Kant
>
> Regards to all,
>                              Luca