Spirit of Time: 10 Best Zeitgeist Quotes


     The 10 Most Incredible, Striking and Longing Quotes about Zeitgeist (Spirit of Time) you can only find here. Excerpts, Quotes and Motivational Phrases. Check.

What is Zeitgeist?

     Zeitgeist is a German term whose translation means spirit of the time or sign of the times, but in a more accurate translation: spirit of time. The Zeitgeist means, in short, the whole of the intellectual, sociological and cultural climate of a small region to the extent of the whole world at a certain time in history, or the generic characteristics of a certain period of time.

     The concept of spirit of the time dates back to Johann Gottfried Herder and other German romantics, but it became better known for Hegel's work, Philosophy of History. In 1769, Herder wrote a critique of the work Genius seculi by the philologist Christian Adolph Klotz, introducing the word Zeitgeist as a translation of genius seculi (Latin: genius - "guardian spirit" and saeculi - "of the century"). Romantic Germans, normally tempted to philosophically reduce the past to essences, tried to construct the "spirit of the time" as a historical argument for their intellectual defense.

Best Zeitgeist Quotes from Life

"Men invent new ideals because they dare not try old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back."


"I did not invent anything new. I simply gathered the discoveries of other men behind whom it was centuries of work. If I had worked fifty, ten or even five years before, I would have failed. So it is with all new things. Progress it happens when all the factors that contribute to it are ready, and then it is inevitable. To teach that relatively few men are responsible for the biggest steps ahead of humanity is the worst kind of nonsense. "

"I want to burn with the spirit of the time. I want all the servants on stage to recognize their high fate. I am disturbed by my comrades' failure to rise above narrow caste interests that are foreign to the interests of society in general. Yes, theater can play a huge role in transforming the whole of existence. "

"A man's shortcomings are taken from his time; his virtues and greatness belong to himself."

Quotes on Spirit of Time

"Even the context of history and the moment in which we live is something we choose, setting the stage for the spiritual food we need to grow and reach a deeper elevation of our souls."

"It is easy for an academic to affirm at a round table that we live in a post-ideological universe - the moment he goes to the bathroom after a heated discussion, he is again committed to ideology."

"The intelligent voter is politically fluid, as he does not strictly believe that the same point of view, party manifesto or individual is the poultice for all diseases in all elections. They are in tune with the zeitgeist, look for potentially respectable parties and candidates with appropriate policies and vote accordingly. "

"Even a genius cannot completely resist his Zeitgeist, the spirit of his time."

"The apparent lack of fashion sense may be exactly what makes it as strong as a zeitgeist sensor. Even I, a designer, do not know why a certain proportion seems old-fashioned or why another seems exciting at a given moment. and cultural theorists. "