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 Wo...rld 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.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain--that which they im...mediately 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.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and ta...lents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When Philosophy with its abstractions paints grey in grey, the freshness and life of youth has gone, the reconciliation is not a r...econciliation in the actual, but in the ideal world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In every dualistic system, and especially in that of Kant, the fundamental defect makes itself visible in the inconsistency of uni...fying at one moment what a moment before had been explained to be independent and therefore incapable of unification. And then, at the very moment after unification has been alleged to be the truth, we suddenly come upon the doctrine that the two elements which, in their true state of unification, had been refused all independent subsistence, are only true and actual in their state of separation. Philosophizing of this kind wants the little penetration needed to discover, that this shuffling only evidences how unsatisfactory each one of the two terms is. And it fails simply because it is incapable of bringing two thoughts together.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »