Q0190

G. W. F. Hegel

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.
Thinker G. W. F. Hegel
School German Idealism
Source Philosophy of Right, Preface
Theme Understanding
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Philosophy of Right, Preface, within the tradition of German Idealism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of understanding, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In G. W. F. Hegel's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: G. W. F. Hegel. (n.d.). The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0190

MLA: G. W. F. Hegel. “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0190.

Chicago: G. W. F. Hegel. “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0190.

Same thinker

More from G. W. F. Hegel

  1. The true is the whole.
  2. Self-consciousness attains its satisfaction only in another self-consciousness.
  3. What is rational is actual; and what is actual is rational.
  4. The true is thus the Bacchanalian revel in which no member is not drunk.

All quotations by G. W. F. Hegel

Same theme

More on understanding

  1. My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as nonsensical…He must surmount these propositions; then he sees the world rightly.
  2. What is rational is actual; and what is actual is rational.
  3. To be great is to be misunderstood.
  4. I shall endeavor not to laugh at human actions, nor to weep over them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.
  5. It is quite true what philosophy says, that life must be understood backwards. But then one forgets the other principle: that it must be lived forwards.

Browse the understanding theme