Quotes from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

finality to no dogmatic rest, but carries out Kant's description of an Age of Criticism, in which nothing, however majestic

daß diese Furcht zu irren schon der Irrtum selbst ist.

The sole work and deed of universal freedom is therefore death, a death too which has no inner significance or filling, for what is negated is the empty point of the absolutely free self. It is thus the coldest and meanest of all deaths, with no more significance than cutting off a head of cabbage or swallowing a mouthful of water

The individual who pretends to act for such noble ends and who masters such admirable oratory counts in his own eyes as an excellent creature – he gives himself and others a swelled head, although the swelling is only due to self-important puffery.

Filozofia nu are voie s? fie edificatoare.

The pallid shades of memory struggle in vain with the life and freedom of the Present.

Self-consciousness exists in itself and for itself, in that and by the fact that it exists for another self-consciousness; that is to say, it is only by being acknowledged or recognized.

The spirit has actuality, and the individuals are its accidents. Thus, there are always only two possible viewpoints in the ethical realm: either one starts from substantiality, or one proceeds atomistically and moves upward from the basis of individuality [Einzelheit]. This latter viewpoint excludes spirit, because it leads only to an aggregation, whereas spirit is not something individual [nichts Einzelnes] but the unity of the individual and the universal.

What is familiar and well known as such is not really known for the very reason that it is familiar and well known.

History in general is therefore the development of Spirit in Time, as Nature is the development of the Idea is Space.

All that is real is reasonable, and all that is reasonable is real.

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.

World history is a court of judgment.

Truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis which reconciles the two.

Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights.

Not curiosity, not vanity, not the consideration of expediency, not duty and conscientiousness, but an unquenchable, unhappy thirst that brooks no compromise leads us to truth.

The State is the absolute reality and the individual himself has objective existence, truth and morality only in his capacity as a member of the State.

Serious occupation is labor that has reference to some want.

The people are that part of the state that does not know what it wants.

Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond.

It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated; the only question is: "Is it true in and for itself?"

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.

Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature.

Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.