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Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)

She fled Nazi Germany as a young woman, spent years as a stateless refugee, and emerged as one of the most important political thinkers of the twentieth century. Arendt wanted to understand how ordinary people enable extraordinary evil. Her answer had nothing to do with monsters. It had to do with loneliness, thoughtlessness, and the slow death of public life. Her work on totalitarianism, action, and the human condition reads differently every decade. It never reads as less urgent.

Concepts

agency, alienation, authenticity, conformity, freedom, loneliness, meaning, praxis, solidarity, totalitarianism

Quotes (14)

“What makes loneliness so unbearable is the loss of one's own self which can b...” — The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
“Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think.” — The Human Condition (1958)
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convi...” — The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
“Action, the only activity that goes on directly between men without the inter...” — The Human Condition (1958)
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their min...” — The Life of the Mind (1978)
“Solitude is that human situation in which I keep myself company. Loneliness c...” — The Life of the Mind (1978)
“The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and ...” — The Human Condition (1958)
“The fact that man is capable of action means that the unexpected can be expec...” — The Human Condition (1958)
“With word and deed we insert ourselves into the human world, and this inserti...” — The Human Condition (1958)
“The miracle that saves the world, the realm of human affairs, from its normal...” — The Human Condition (1958)
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their min...” — The Life of the Mind (1978)
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convi...” — The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
“Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, ...” — The Human Condition (1958)
“Action, the only activity that goes on directly between men without the inter...” — The Human Condition (1958)