1001Philosophers

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel vs Soren Kierkegaard on Life

Hegel's philosophy treats human life primarily through its public and institutional forms — family, civil society, the state — as the rational unfolding of Spirit. Kierkegaard insists that genuine philosophical seriousness is concerned with the existing individual's inwardness rather than with public-historical life, and that the deepest questions of how to live cannot be addressed at the level of universal categories.

About this topic

The question of what makes a life worth living runs through almost every philosophical tradition. Ancient philosophers identified the good life with virtue, contemplation, or the absence of disturbance; medieval thinkers tied it to the love of God and the order of creation; modern philosophers have located meaning in autonomy, projects, relationships, or self-creation. The quotes collected here range across all these strands, from Stoic counsels of resilience to existentialist treatments of meaning under conditions of uncertainty.

For a side-by-side overview of the two philosophers more broadly, see the full Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel vs Soren Kierkegaard comparison. To browse philosophy more widely on this theme, see the Life quotes hub.

Representative quotes on life

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel on life

  • “Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.”

    Often abbreviated to: Nothing great in the World has been accomplished without passion. | Variant translation: We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm.

  • “Reading the morning newspaper is the realist's morning prayer.”

    Miscellaneous writings of G.W.F. Hegel , translation by Jon Bartley Stewart, Northwestern University Press, 2002, page 247.

  • “As quoted in Inwardness and Existence (1989) by Walter A. Davis, p. 18”

    To be aware of limitations is already to be beyond them.

  • Attributed to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:

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

Soren Kierkegaard on life

  • “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

    Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at det maa leves forlænds.

  • “It will be easy for us once we receive the ball of yarn from Ariadne (love) and then go through all the mazes of the labyrinth (life) and kill the monster. But how many are there who plunge into life (the labyrinth) without taking that precaution?”

    Journal entry, August 1, 1835

  • “Variant translation: My focus should be on what I do in life, not knowing everything, excluding knowledge on what you do. The is key to find a purpose, whatever it truly is that God wills me to do; it's crucial to find a truth which is true to me, to find the idea which I am willing to live and die for.”

    What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die.

  • Attributed to Soren Kierkegaard:

    “The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”

  • Attributed to Soren Kierkegaard:

    “To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.”

All 7 Soren Kierkegaard quotes on life →

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