Hannah Arendt Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old Hannah Arendt quotes, Hannah Arendt sayings, and Hannah Arendt proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise. Hannah Arendt
Manipulations of opinion, insofar as they are inspired by well-defined interests, have limited goals; their effect, however, if they happen to touch upon an issue of authentic concern, is no longer subject to their control and may easily produce consequences they never foresaw or intended. Hannah Arendt
In contrast to revenge, which is the natural, automatic reaction to transgression and which, because of the irreversibility of the action process can be expected and even calculated, the act of forgiving can never be predicted; it is the only reaction that acts in an unexpected way and thus retains, though being a reaction, something of the original character of action. Hannah Arendt
There is a strange interdependence between thoughtlessness and evil. Hannah Arendt
Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent. Violence appears where power is in jeopardy, but left to its own course it ends in power's disappearance. Hannah Arendt
War has become a luxury that only small nations can afford. Hannah Arendt
The ceaseless, senseless demand for original scholarship in a number of fields, where only erudition is now possible, has led either to sheer irrelevancy, the famous knowing of more and more about less and less, or to the development of pseudo-scholars. Hannah Arendt
The presence of others who see what we see and hear what we hear assures us of the reality of the world and ourselves. Hannah Arendt
The Third World is not a reality but an ideology. Hannah Arendt
The human condition comprehends more than the condition under which life has been given to man. Men are conditioned beings because everything they come in contact with turns immediately into a condition of their existence. The world in which the vita activa spends itself consists of things produced by human activities; but the things that owe their existence exclusively to men nevertheless constantly condition their human makers. Hannah Arendt
The more dubious and uncertain an instrument violence has become in international relations, the more it has gained in reputation and appeal in domestic affairs, specifically in the matter of revolution. Hannah Arendt
Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom. Hannah Arendt
Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom. Hannah Arendt
The hypocrite’s crime is that he bears false witness against himself. What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core. Hannah Arendt
There is hardly a better way to avoid discussion than by releasing an argument from the control of the present and by saying that only the future will reveal its merits. Hannah Arendt
The trouble with lying and deceiving is that their efficiency depends entirely upon a dear notion of the truth that the liar and deceiver wishes to hide. Hannah Arendt
This is the precept by which I have lived. Prepare for the worst; expect the best and take what comes. Hannah Arendt
The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil. Hannah Arendt
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution. Hannah Arendt
Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core. Hannah Arendt
The defiance of established authority, religious and secular, social and political, as a world-wide phenomenon may well one day be accounted the outstanding event of the last decade. Hannah Arendt
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution. Hannah Arendt