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

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 Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Education is the art of making man ethical.
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

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

I'm not ugly, but my beauty is a total creation.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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

Mark this well, you proud men of action! you are, after all, nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel


Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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

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

The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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

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

Too fair to worship, too divine to love.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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

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