Did Obama quote Kant at the State Dinner?

I woke up hearing Obama on the radio saying:

"As we all know, in India some of life's most treasured moments are often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent. It's a little like tonight. We have incredible food and music and are surrounded by great friends. For it's been said that "the most beautiful things in the universe are the starry heavens above us and the feeling of duty within us."

Which sounded to me a bit  like the famous Kant quote from the Critique of Practical Reason:

"Two things fill me with constantly increasing admiration and awe, the longer and more earnestly I reflect on them: the starry heavens without and the moral law within. "

"Zwei Dinge erfüllen das Gemüth mit immer neuer und zunehmender Bewunderung und Ehrfurcht, je öfter und anhaltender sich das Nachdenken damit beschäftigt: der bestirnte Himmel über mir und das moralische Gesetz in mir."

I did wonder whether the "feeling of duty" was a legitimate way of saying "the moral law within."

Well apparently the Internets think the quote that Obama incorporated into his speech is "an indian proverb"  (although one page described it as an Irish proverb...) which is probably why he chose it, and not because he has been reading or talking to someone about Kant.

Comments

[Ian MacInnes]

Maybe Kant got the phrase from an Indian text?