1770-1831, German Philosopher
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.
Georg Hegel – [America]
Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.
Georg Hegel – [Principles]
An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think.
Georg Hegel – [Generalizations]
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.
Georg Hegel – [Animals]
As high as mind stands above nature, so high does the state stand above physical life. Man must therefore venerate the state as a secular deity. The march of God in the world, that is what the State is.
Georg Hegel – [State]
Education is the art of making man ethical.
Georg Hegel – [Education]
If you want to love you must serve, if you want freedom you must die.
Georg Hegel – [Service]
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.
Georg Hegel – [Consequences]
It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated; the only question is: ''Is it true in and for itself?''
Georg Hegel – [Originality]
It is easier to discover a deficiency in individuals, in states, and in Providence, than to see their real import and value.
Georg Hegel – [Faults]
Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature.
Georg Hegel – [Goodness]
No man is a hero to his valet. This is not because the hero is no hero, but because the valet is a valet.
Georg Hegel – [Heroes and Heroism]
Once the state has been founded, there can no longer be any heroes. They come on the scene only in uncivilized conditions.
Georg Hegel – [Heroes and Heroism]
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.
Georg Hegel – [Poverty and The Poor]
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.
Georg Hegel – [Public Opinion]
The courage of the truth is the first condition of philosophic study.
Georg Hegel – [Philosophers and Philosophy]
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.
Georg Hegel – [Freedom]
The essence of the modern state is that the universal be bound up with the complete freedom of its particular members and with private well-being, that thus the interests of family and civil society must concentrate themselves on the state. It is only when both these moments subsist in their strength that the state can be regarded as articulated and genuinely organized.
Georg Hegel – [State]
The Few assume to be the deputies, but they are often only the despoilers of the Many.
Georg Hegel – [Congress]
The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.
Georg Hegel – [Freedom]