The bud disappears when the blossom breaks through, and we might say that the former is refuted by the latter; in the same way when the fruit comes, the blossom may be explained to be a false form of the plant's existence, for the fruit appears as its true nature in place of the blossom.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the idea of transformation and the transition from potential to realization.
Hegel suggests that the various stages of a plant's development represent different truths of existence. The bud, which signifies potential, gives way to the blossom, symbolizing emergence and beauty, and eventually, the fruit, which stands as the ultimate realization of the plant's essence. This progression can be seen as a metaphor for life's transformations, where each phase must give way for the next, revealing deeper truths about identity and existence.
In practice
In a graduation speech to emphasize personal growth through challenges.
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.
Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
Every idea, extended into infinity, becomes its own opposite.
If we go on to cast a look at the fate of these World-Historical persons, whose vocation it was to be the agents of the World-Spirit, we shall find it to have been no happy one. They attained no calm enjoyment; their whole life was labour and trouble; their whole nature was nought else but their master—passion. When their object is attained they fall off like empty hulls from the kernel. They die early, like Alexander; they are murdered, like Caesar.
When individuals and nations have once got in their heads the abstract concept of full-blown liberty, there is nothing like it in its uncontrollable strength.
Seeing the similarity to oneself, one should not use violence or have it used.
It is on great occasions only, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the real voice of the people can be known.
That is the strangeness of language: it crosses the boundaries of the body, is at once inside and outside, and it sometimes happens that we don't notice the threshold has been crossed.
I think in our time, you know, so much of the information we get is pre-polarized. Fiction has a way of reminding us that we actually are very similar in our emotions and our neurology and our desires and our fears, so I think it's a nice way to neutralize that polarization.
Que sçais-je?" (What do I know?)
Man is to man either a god or a wolf.
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