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.
Interpretation
Finite things are inherently destined to exist temporarily, and their beginning signifies their eventual end.
In this quote, Hegel suggests that everything that comes into existence carries within it the inevitability of its own demise. He emphasizes the paradox of finite beings: as they are born, the process of decay and death is already embedded in their nature, highlighting the transient quality of life and the continual interplay between existence and non-existence.
In practice
During a philosophical debate about existence and mortality, this quote could emphasize the nature of life.
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.
He found himself still with too many questions and not enough answers.
Contemporary moral philosophy has found an original way of being boring, which is by not discussing moral issues at all.
Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds; it is a fallacy that must be exposed: War is such a dangerous business that the mistakes which come from kindness are the very worst.
In solitude we are in the presence of mere matter (even the sky, the stars, the moon, trees in blossom), things of less value (perhaps) than a human spirit. Its value lies in the greater possibility of attention.
Ideas, cultures, and histories cannot seriously be understood or studied without their force, or more precisely their configurations of power, also being studied.
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
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