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.
Serious occupation is labor that has reference to some want.
Reading the morning newspaper is the realist’s morning. One orients one’s attitude toward the either by or by what the world is. The former gives as much security as the latter, in that one knows how one stands.
It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated; the only question is: Is it true in and for itself?
God is the absolute truth.
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 first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.
Before the end of Time will be the end of History. Before the end of History will be the end of Art.
The heart is everywhere, and each part of the organism is only the specialized force of the heart itself.
It is because the method of physics does not satisfy the comprehension that we have to go on further.
To be aware of limitations is already to be beyond them.
The State is the absolute reality and the individual himself has objective existence, truth and morality only in his capacity as a member of the State.
The evident character of this defective cognition of which mathematics is proud, and on which it plumes itself before philosophy, rests solely on the poverty of its purpose and the defectiveness of its stuff, and is therefore of a kind that philosophy must spurn.
History in general is therefore the development of Spirit in Time, as Nature is the development of the Idea is Space.
Consequently, the sensuous aspect of art is related only to the two theoretical sensesof sight and hearing, while smell, taste, and touch remain excluded.
The nature of finite things is to have the seed of their passing-away as their essential being: the hour of their birth is the hour of their death.
In duty the individual acquires his substantive freedom.
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.
If you want to love you must serve, if you want freedom you must die.
History as the slaughter-bench.