Hannah Arendt — Quote from The Life of the Mind
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
The Life of the Mind (1978)
Concepts: agency, conformity, authenticity
Resonant Quotes
- “Dehumanization, which marks not only those whose humanity has been stolen, bu...” — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Freire's insight that oppression dehumanizes the oppressor too directly extends Arendt's observation that evil comes ...
- “Commitment is an act, not a word.” — Jean-Paul Sartre, What Is Literature? Sartre's existentialist emphasis on commitment as concrete action directly complements Arendt's insight that moral ev...
- “Your silence will not protect you.” — Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider Lorde's warning against silence directly confronts Arendt's insight about moral indecision, arguing that the refusal ...
- “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.” — Rollo May, Man's Search for Himself May's identification of conformity as courage's true opposite perfectly complements Arendt's insight—both locate mora...
- “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until...” — James Baldwin, The Cross of Redemption Baldwin's insight that confronting reality is the prerequisite for any meaningful change directly addresses Arendt's ...
- “The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identic...” — Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom The banality of evil meets the psychology of conformity — those who never choose become the automatons who carry out ...
- “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not beco...” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche warns that fighting evil risks becoming it; Arendt observes that evil comes from never choosing — both trac...
- “How can man know himself? He is a thing dark and veiled. The true way that le...” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Schopenhauer as Educator Arendt's observation about evil arising from moral indecision finds its positive counterpart in Nietzsche's call for ...