Individuals stand at the head of all actions. This holds in world history as well. They make real what the time calls for.

Do they know this?

No. They are so much one with the work of the world spirit that it stays hidden from them. It is not their conscious end.

And their reward?

They get no honor and no thanks from the people of their own time. Nor from the public opinion of later times. They keep only their share in the form of immortal fame.

Summary: Great individuals stand at the head of world history. Their real work stays hidden from them. Instead of thanks they receive only fame.

§ 551. Since such a business of actuality appears as action and thereby as the work of individuals, these are, with regard to the substantial content of their labor, instruments, and their subjectivity, which is what is peculiarly their own; is the empty form of activity. What they have thus gained for themselves through the individual share they have taken in the substantial business, prepared and determined independently of them, is a formal universality of subjective representation, – the fame, which is their reward.

§ 551. Since such a business of actuality appears as action and thereby as the work of individuals, these are, with regard to the substantial content of their labor, instruments, and their subjectivity, which is what is peculiarly their own, is the empty form of activity. What they have thus gained for themselves through the individual share they have taken in the substantial business prepared and determined independently of them is a formal universality of subjective representation – the fame, which is their reward.

§ 451. But since such a business, as action, is a resolution, and thereby appears as the work of individuals, these are, with regard to the substantial [element] of their labor, instruments, and their subjectivity is the empty form of activity. What they have thus gained for themselves through the individual share they have taken in the substantial business is the fame which is their reward.