Quotations
Hannah Arendt
(October 14, 1906
– December 4, 1975),
German-American
Political Theorist
Quotations
“Adolf Eichmann
went to the gallows
with great dignity.
He had asked for a bottle of red wine
and had drunk half of it.
He refused the help of the Protestant minister
the Reverend William Hull
who offered to read the Bible with him:
he had only two more hours to live
and therefore no “time to waste.”
He walked the fifty yards
from his cell to the execution chamber
calm and erect with his hands bound behind him.
When the guards tied his ankles and knees
he asked them to loosen the bonds
so that he could stand straight.
“I don’t need that, ”
he said when
the black hood
was offered him.
He was in complete command
of himself,
nay, he was more:
he was completely himself.
Nothing could have
demonstrated this
more convincingly
than
the grotesque silliness
of his last words.
He began
by stating emphatically
that he was
a Gottgläubiger
[those who broke away
from Christianity.
The term implies someone
who still believes in God,
although
without having
any religious affiliation]
to express
in common Nazi fashion
that
he was no Christian
and did not believe
in life after death.
He then proceeded:
“After a short while
gentlemen
we shall all
meet again.
Such is the fate
of all men.
Long live Germany!
Long live Argentina!
Long live Austria!
I shall not forget them!”
In the face of death
he had found
the cliché
used in funeral oratory.
Under the gallows
his memory played him
the last trick --
he was “elated”
and
he forgot that this
was his own funeral.
It was as though
in those last minutes
he was summing up
the lesson
that
this long course
in human wickedness
had taught us --
the lesson
of the fearsome
word-and-thought-defying
banality of evil.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"Eichmann in Jerusalem:
A Report on the Banality of Evil"
+
“The sad truth
is that most evil
is done by
people
who
never
make up their minds
to be good or evil.”
+
“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.”
+
“There are no
dangerous thoughts;
thinking itself
is dangerous.”
+
“Under conditions
of tyranny
it is far easier
to act than to think. ”
+
“The trouble with
Eichmann
was precisely
that
so many
were like him,
and that
the many
were neither
perverted nor sadistic,
that
they were,
and still are,
terribly and terrifyingly
normal.
From the viewpoint
of
our legal institutions
and
of our moral standards
of judgment,
this normality
was much more terrifying
than
all the atrocities put together.”
+
“As citizens,
we must prevent
wrongdoing
because
the world
in which
we all live,
wrong-doer,
wrong sufferer
and
spectator,
is at stake.”
+
“Courage
is indispensable
because
in politics,
not life
but
the world
is at stake.”
+
“For politics
is not like
the nursery;
in politics
Obedience and Support
are
the same.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"Eichmann in Jerusalem:
A Report on the Banality of Evil"
+
“When all
are guilty,
no one
is;
confessions
of collective guilt
are
the best possible safeguard
against
the discovery of culprits,
and
the very
magnitude of the crime
the
best excuse
for doing nothing. ”
+
“Today
we ought to
add
to these terms
the latest
and perhaps
most formidable form
of such dominion,
bureaucracy
or
the rule
by an intricate system
of bureaus
in which
no men,
neither
one
nor
the best,
neither
the few
nor
the many
can be held responsible
and
which
could be
properly called
the
rule
by Nobody.”
“War
has become a luxury
that
only small nations
can afford.”
+
"And the distinction
between
violent
and
non-violent
action
is that
the former
is exclusively bent upon
the destruction
of the old,
and the latter
is chiefly concerned with
the establishment
of something new.”
+
“Exasperation
with
the threefold
frustration
of action --
the unpredictability
of its outcome,
the irreversibility
of the process,
and the anonymity
of its authors --
is almost as old
as recorded history.
It has always been
a great temptation,
for
men of action
no less than
for
men of thought,
to find
a substitute for action
in the hope
that
the realm
of human affairs
may escape
the haphazardness
and
moral irresponsibility
inherent
in
a plurality of agents.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"The Human Condition"
+
“The possible redemption
from
the predicament
of irreversibility ──
of being unable to undo
what one has done ──
is the faculty of forgiving.
The remedy
for unpredictability,
for the chaotic uncertainty
of the future,
is contained in
the faculty
to make and keep promises.
Both faculties
depend upon
plurality,
on
the presence and acting
of others,
for
no man
can forgive himself
and
no one
can be bound by
a promise
made only to himself.”
+
“Education
is the point
at which
we decide
whether
we love the world
enough
to assume responsibility
for it,
and
by the same token
save it
from that ruin
which
except for renewal,
except for the coming
of
the new and the young,
would be
inevitable.
And education,
too,
is where
we decide
whether
we love our children
enough
not to expel them
from
our world
and
leave them
to
their own devices,
nor
to strike
from their hands
their chance
of undertaking
something new,
something
unforeseen by us,
but
to
prepare them
in advance
for the task
of renewing
a common world.”
+
“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 a pseudo-scholarship
which actually
destroys its object. ”
+
“There are many
great authors
of the past
who have
survived
centuries
of oblivion and neglect,
but
it is still an open question
whether
they will be able
to survive
an 'Entertaining Version'
of what
they have to say.”
+
“Caution
in handling
generally accepted opinions
that claim to explain
whole trends of history
is especially important
for the historian
of modern times,
because
the last century
has produced
an abundance
of ideologies
that
pretend to be
keys to history
but
are actually
nothing but
desperate efforts
to escape responsibility.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"The Origins of Totalitarianism"
+
“The chief reason
warfare
is still with us
is neither
a secret death-wish
of the human species,
nor
an irrepressible instinct
of aggression,
nor,
finally and more plausibly,
the serious
economic and social dangers
inherent in disarmament,
but
the simple fact
that
no substitute
for this final arbiter
in international affairs
has yet
appeared
on the political scene. ”
+
“Men
in plural
[…]
can
experience
meaningfulness
only
because
they
can
talk with
and
make sense to
each other
and themselves.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"The Human Condition"
+
“Only
the mob
and
the elite
can be
attracted
by
the momentum
of
totalitarianism
itself.
The masses
have to be won
by propaganda.”
+
“Man
cannot be free
if he
does not know
that
he is
subject
to necessity,
because
his
freedom
is always won
in his
never-wholly-successful
attempts
to
liberate himself
from necessity. ”
+
“The most
radical
revolutionary
will become
a
conservative
the day after
the revolution.”
+++
[Found online at: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/12806.Hannah_Arendt ]
Hannah Arendt
(October 14, 1906
– December 4, 1975),
German-American
Political Theorist
Quotations
“Adolf Eichmann
went to the gallows
with great dignity.
He had asked for a bottle of red wine
and had drunk half of it.
He refused the help of the Protestant minister
the Reverend William Hull
who offered to read the Bible with him:
he had only two more hours to live
and therefore no “time to waste.”
He walked the fifty yards
from his cell to the execution chamber
calm and erect with his hands bound behind him.
When the guards tied his ankles and knees
he asked them to loosen the bonds
so that he could stand straight.
“I don’t need that, ”
he said when
the black hood
was offered him.
He was in complete command
of himself,
nay, he was more:
he was completely himself.
Nothing could have
demonstrated this
more convincingly
than
the grotesque silliness
of his last words.
He began
by stating emphatically
that he was
a Gottgläubiger
[those who broke away
from Christianity.
The term implies someone
who still believes in God,
although
without having
any religious affiliation]
to express
in common Nazi fashion
that
he was no Christian
and did not believe
in life after death.
He then proceeded:
“After a short while
gentlemen
we shall all
meet again.
Such is the fate
of all men.
Long live Germany!
Long live Argentina!
Long live Austria!
I shall not forget them!”
In the face of death
he had found
the cliché
used in funeral oratory.
Under the gallows
his memory played him
the last trick --
he was “elated”
and
he forgot that this
was his own funeral.
It was as though
in those last minutes
he was summing up
the lesson
that
this long course
in human wickedness
had taught us --
the lesson
of the fearsome
word-and-thought-defying
banality of evil.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"Eichmann in Jerusalem:
A Report on the Banality of Evil"
+
“The sad truth
is that most evil
is done by
people
who
never
make up their minds
to be good or evil.”
+
“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.”
+
“There are no
dangerous thoughts;
thinking itself
is dangerous.”
+
“Under conditions
of tyranny
it is far easier
to act than to think. ”
+
“The trouble with
Eichmann
was precisely
that
so many
were like him,
and that
the many
were neither
perverted nor sadistic,
that
they were,
and still are,
terribly and terrifyingly
normal.
From the viewpoint
of
our legal institutions
and
of our moral standards
of judgment,
this normality
was much more terrifying
than
all the atrocities put together.”
+
“As citizens,
we must prevent
wrongdoing
because
the world
in which
we all live,
wrong-doer,
wrong sufferer
and
spectator,
is at stake.”
+
“Courage
is indispensable
because
in politics,
not life
but
the world
is at stake.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"Between Past and Future"+
“For politics
is not like
the nursery;
in politics
Obedience and Support
are
the same.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"Eichmann in Jerusalem:
A Report on the Banality of Evil"
+
“When all
are guilty,
no one
is;
confessions
of collective guilt
are
the best possible safeguard
against
the discovery of culprits,
and
the very
magnitude of the crime
the
best excuse
for doing nothing. ”
+
“Today
we ought to
add
to these terms
the latest
and perhaps
most formidable form
of such dominion,
bureaucracy
or
the rule
by an intricate system
of bureaus
in which
no men,
neither
one
nor
the best,
neither
the few
nor
the many
can be held responsible
and
which
could be
properly called
the
rule
by Nobody.”
+
“War
has become a luxury
that
only small nations
can afford.”
+
"And the distinction
between
violent
and
non-violent
action
is that
the former
is exclusively bent upon
the destruction
of the old,
and the latter
is chiefly concerned with
the establishment
of something new.”
+
“Exasperation
with
the threefold
frustration
of action --
the unpredictability
of its outcome,
the irreversibility
of the process,
and the anonymity
of its authors --
is almost as old
as recorded history.
It has always been
a great temptation,
for
men of action
no less than
for
men of thought,
to find
a substitute for action
in the hope
that
the realm
of human affairs
may escape
the haphazardness
and
moral irresponsibility
inherent
in
a plurality of agents.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"The Human Condition"
+
“The possible redemption
from
the predicament
of irreversibility ──
of being unable to undo
what one has done ──
is the faculty of forgiving.
The remedy
for unpredictability,
for the chaotic uncertainty
of the future,
is contained in
the faculty
to make and keep promises.
Both faculties
depend upon
plurality,
on
the presence and acting
of others,
for
no man
can forgive himself
and
no one
can be bound by
a promise
made only to himself.”
+
“Education
is the point
at which
we decide
whether
we love the world
enough
to assume responsibility
for it,
and
by the same token
save it
from that ruin
which
except for renewal,
except for the coming
of
the new and the young,
would be
inevitable.
And education,
too,
is where
we decide
whether
we love our children
enough
not to expel them
from
our world
and
leave them
to
their own devices,
nor
to strike
from their hands
their chance
of undertaking
something new,
something
unforeseen by us,
but
to
prepare them
in advance
for the task
of renewing
a common world.”
+
“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 a pseudo-scholarship
which actually
destroys its object. ”
+
“There are many
great authors
of the past
who have
survived
centuries
of oblivion and neglect,
but
it is still an open question
whether
they will be able
to survive
an 'Entertaining Version'
of what
they have to say.”
+
“Caution
in handling
generally accepted opinions
that claim to explain
whole trends of history
is especially important
for the historian
of modern times,
because
the last century
has produced
an abundance
of ideologies
that
pretend to be
keys to history
but
are actually
nothing but
desperate efforts
to escape responsibility.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"The Origins of Totalitarianism"
+
“The chief reason
warfare
is still with us
is neither
a secret death-wish
of the human species,
nor
an irrepressible instinct
of aggression,
nor,
finally and more plausibly,
the serious
economic and social dangers
inherent in disarmament,
but
the simple fact
that
no substitute
for this final arbiter
in international affairs
has yet
appeared
on the political scene. ”
+
“Men
in plural
[…]
can
experience
meaningfulness
only
because
they
can
talk with
and
make sense to
each other
and themselves.”
― Hannah Arendt,
"The Human Condition"
+
“Only
the mob
and
the elite
can be
attracted
by
the momentum
of
totalitarianism
itself.
The masses
have to be won
by propaganda.”
+
“Man
cannot be free
if he
does not know
that
he is
subject
to necessity,
because
his
freedom
is always won
in his
never-wholly-successful
attempts
to
liberate himself
from necessity. ”
+
“The most
radical
revolutionary
will become
a
conservative
the day after
the revolution.”
+++
[Found online at: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/12806.Hannah_Arendt ]
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