To Paraphrase Hegel...

Only one more word concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late. Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready...When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. Le Marabout Errant takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.

--from the Preface to Hegel's Philosophy of Right, tr. S. W. Dyde, 1896 (slightly amended).