“Education is the art of making man ethical.”
“What is rational is actual, and what is actual is rational.”
“Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature.”
“The valor that struggles is better than the weakness that endures.”
“The courage of the truth is the first condition of philosophic study.”
“Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.”
“If you want to love you must serve, if you want freedom you must die.”
“Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond.”
“The Few assume to be the deputies, but they are often only the despoilers of the Many.”
“The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.”
“The learner always begins by finding fault, but the scholar sees the positive merit in everything.”
“We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”
“No man is a hero to his valet. This is not because the hero is no hero, but because the valet is a valet.”
“An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think.”
“To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual.”
“It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated; the only question is: ''Is it true in and for itself?''”
“Once the state has been founded, there can no longer be any heroes. They come on the scene only in uncivilized conditions.”
“It is easier to discover a deficiency in individuals, in states, and in Providence, than to see their real import and value.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”