Inspirational Quotes by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (German Philosopher)

What experience and history teach us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: History, Government

If you want to love you must serve, if you want freedom you must die.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Service

Nothing great in this world has been accomplished without passion.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Enthusiasm, Passion, Great, Greatness & Great Things, Accomplishment

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 Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Heroism, Heroes, Heroes/Heroism

It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated; the only question is: “Is it true in and for itself?”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Innovation, Originality

What is rational is actual, and what is actual is rational.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Reason

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 Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Poverty, The Poor

The learner always begins by finding fault, but the scholar sees the positive merit in everything.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Thinking

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 Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

The valor that struggles is better than the weakness that endures.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Valor, Bravery

We do not need to be shoemakers to know if our shoes fit, and just as little have we any need to be professionals to acquire knowledge of matters of universal interest.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Experts, Professionalism

We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Passion, Accomplishment

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 Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: America

Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Goodness

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.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: One liners, History, Historians

It is easier to discover a deficiency in individuals, in states, and in Providence, than to see their real import and value.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Faults, Mistakes

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.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Liberty

Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Principles

The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: History, Freedom

Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Philosophers, Philosophy

To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: World, Reason

The courage of the truth is the first condition of philosophic study.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Philosophy, Philosophers

Education is the art of making man ethical.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Education

Life has a value only when it has something valuable as its object.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Goals, Aspirations

Once the state has been founded, there can no longer be any heroes. They come on the scene only in uncivilized conditions.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Heroes, Heroism, Heroes/Heroism

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 Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Topics: Freedom

The Few assume to be the deputies, but they are often only the despoilers of the Many.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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