Hannah Arendt — Quote from The Human Condition
“The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes amounts to certainty; the new therefore always appears in the guise of a miracle.”
The Human Condition (1958)
Concepts: agency, freedom, meaning
Resonant Quotes
- “Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being. Creativity re...” — Rollo May, The Courage to Create May's definition of creativity as bringing something new into being directly illuminates Arendt's concept of natality...
- “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certain...” — Václav Havel, Disturbing the Peace Both thinkers locate human dignity not in predictable outcomes but in the meaningful act of creating newness against ...
- “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free tha...” — Albert Camus, The Rebel Arendt's concept of natality as miraculous interruption of the probable illuminates how Camus's absolute freedom mani...
- “The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the ver...” — Erich Fromm, Man for Himself Both reveal how genuine human potential emerges precisely through breaking free from the constraining logic of certai...
- “Liberation is thus a childbirth, and a painful one. The man or woman who emer...” — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Arendt's concept of the miraculous 'new' resonates deeply with Freire's 'new person' — both see genuine transformatio...
- “The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” — Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds Both celebrate the miraculous emergence of the genuinely new—Tagore's butterfly living in pure moments and Arendt's h...
- “What is a rebel? A man who says no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunc...” — Albert Camus, The Rebel Both philosophers locate human dignity in acts that defy deterministic odds—Arendt's miraculous 'new' and Camus's reb...
- “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certain...” — Václav Havel, Disturbing the Peace Both reframe the relationship between possibility and certainty, with Arendt's miraculous new emerging despite probab...