The crooked timber of humanity

Immanuel Kant (1784):  “From the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”

The original German is : "Aus so krummen Holze, als woraus der Mensch gemacht ist, kann nichts ganz Gerades gezimmert werden."

A word for word translation goes : “Out of timber so crooked, as that from which human beings are made, nothing entirely straight can be fashioned.”.  I don’t know German but I wish I did as it’s a wonderful language.