Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized--the question involuntarily arises--to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.

Mark this well, you proud men of action! you are, after all, nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought.

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 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.

In duty the individual acquires his substantive freedom

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it.

Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights.