According to Immanuel Kant, “Enlightenment is a man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage”, which is ones inability to make use of his knowledge without instruction from others. The motto of Enlightenment is “Have courage to use your own reason”.  The main reasons why mankind is unable to trust in their own reason and must have assurance from an outside source in order to validate their thoughts are laziness and cowardice. Once a person is mature and is able to freely form their own thoughts and opinions, they are enlightened, so long as they have the ability to to express those thoughts without distraction. Those that are enlightened use reason in their thought and are able to enlighten others.