Fear is an emotion indispensable for survival. Hannah Arendt More Quotes by Hannah Arendt More Quotes From Hannah Arendt To act, in its most general sense, means to take an initiative, to begin... to set something into motion. Hannah Arendt initiative mean If it is true ... that no one has a life worth thinking about whose life story cannot be told, does it not then follow that life could be, even ought to be, lived as a story, that what one has to do in life is to make the story come true? Hannah Arendt doe life thinking Since one cannot educate adults, the word "education" has an evil sound in politics; there is a pretense of education, when the real purpose is coercion without the use of force. Hannah Arendt real evil sound ... whatever men do or know or experience can make sense only to the extent that it can be spoken about. There may be truths beyond speech, and they may be of great relevance to man in the singular, that is, to man in so far as he is not a political being, whatever else he may be. Men in the plural, that is, men in so far as they live and move and act in this world, can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and to themselves. Hannah Arendt truth men moving There exists in our society widespread fear of judging…[B]ehind the unwillingness to judge lurks the suspicion that no one is a free agent, and hence doubt that anyone is responsible or could be expected to answer for what he has done…Who has ever maintained that by judging a wrong I presuppose that I myself would be incapable of committing it? Hannah Arendt judging would-be doubt It is quite gratifying to feel guilty if you haven't done anything wrong: how noble! Whereas it is rather hard and certainly depressing to admit guilt and to repent. Hannah Arendt being-sad depressing guilt There is no lasting happiness outside the prescribed cycle of painful exhaustion and pleasurable regeneration, and whatever throws this cycle out of balance – poverty and misery where exhaustion is followed by wretchedness instead of regeneration, or great riches and an entirely effortless life where boredom takes the place of exhaustion and where the mills of necessity, of consumption and digestion, grind an impotent human body mercilessly and barrenly to death – ruins the elemental happiness that comes from being alive. Hannah Arendt lasting-happiness boredom balance The way God has been thought of for thousands of years is no longer convincing; if anything is dead, it can only be the traditional thought of God. Hannah Arendt convincing way years Courage is indispensible because in politics not life but the world is at stake. Hannah Arendt stakes world According to bourgeois standards, those who are completely unlucky and unsuccessful are automatically barred from competition, which is the life of society. Good fortune is identified with honor, and bad luck with shame. Hannah Arendt competition luck honor Thinking does not lead to truth; truth is the beginning of thought. Hannah Arendt truth-is doe thinking Action, as distinguished from fabrication, is never possible in isolation; to be isolated is to be deprived of the capacity to act. Hannah Arendt isolation capacity action It is the nature of beginning that something new is started which cannot be expected from whatever may have happened before. This character of startling unexpectedness is inherent in all beginnings. Hannah Arendt something-new may character Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless. Hannah Arendt meaningless names action Ideas, as distinguished from events, are never unprecedented. Hannah Arendt distinguished events ideas It is in the very nature of a beginning to carry with itself a measure of complete arbitrariness. Not only is it not bound into a reliable chain of cause and effect, a chain in which each effect immediately turns into the cause for future developments, the beginning has, as it were, nothing whatever to hold on to; it is as though it came out of nowhere in either time or space. Hannah Arendt causes development space Culture relates to objects and is a phenomenon of the world; entertainment relates to people and is a phenomenon of life. Hannah Arendt culture people world [About Eichmann:] 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 taught-us evil long Legends have always played a powerful role in the making of history. ... Without ever relating facts reliably, yet always expressing their true significance, they offered a truth beyond realities, a remembrance beyond memories. Hannah Arendt powerful memories reality Legitimacy, when challenged, bases itself on an appeal to the past, while justification relates to an end that lies in the future. Violence can be justifiable, but it never will be legitimate. Hannah Arendt violence lying past
