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America
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America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World's history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Animals
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Animals are in possession of themselves; their soul is in possession of their body. But they have no right to their life, because they do not will it.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Bravery
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The valor that struggles is better than the weakness that endures.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Citizenship
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The true courage of civilized nations is readiness for sacrifice in the service of the state, so that the individual counts as only one amongst many. The important thing here is not personal mettle but aligning oneself with the universal.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Civilization
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All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State. . . For Truth is the unity of the universal and subjective will; and the Universal is to be found in the State, in its laws, its universal and rational arrangements. The State is the Divine Idea as it exists on earth. We have in it, therefore, the object of history in a more definite shape than before; that in which Freedom obtains objectivity.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Congress
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The Few assume to be the deputies, but they are often only the despoilers of the Many.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Consequences
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In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain -- that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Education
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Education is the art of making man ethical.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Freedom
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The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Generalize, Generalizations
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An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Goodness
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Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Greatness & Great Things
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Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Heroes/Heroism
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No man is a hero to his valet. This is not because the hero is no hero, but because the valet is a valet.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Once the state has been founded, there can no longer be any heroes. They come on the scene only in uncivilized conditions.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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History
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What experience and history teach is this--that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.
-G. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History
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Innovation
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It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated; the only question is: Is it true in and for itself?
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Liberty
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When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not really the assertion of private interests which is thereby designated.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Mistakes
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It is easier to discover a deficiency in individuals, in states, and in Providence, than to see their real import and value.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Opinion
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Public opinion contains all kinds of falsity and truth, but it takes a great man to find the truth in it. The great man of the age is the one who can put into words the will of his age, tell his age what its will is, and accomplish it. What he does is the heart and the essence of his age, he actualizes his age. The man who lacks sense enough to despise public opinion expressed in gossip will never do anything great.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Order
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When we walk the streets at night in safety, it does not strike us that this might be otherwise. This habit of feeling safe has become second nature, and we do not reflect on just how this is due solely to the working of special institutions. Commonplace thinking often has the impression that force holds the state together, but in fact its only bond is the fundamental sense of order which everybody possesses.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Philosophy
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The courage of the truth is the first condition of philosophic study.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Poverty
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Poverty in itself does not make men into a rabble; a rabble is created only when there is joined to poverty a disposition of mind, an inner indignation against the rich, against society, against the government.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Principles
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Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.
-G. W. F. Hegel
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Books by and about G. W. F. Hegel