It is in the very nature of things human that every act that has once made its appearance and has been recorded in the history of mankind stays with mankind as a potentiality long after its actuality has become a thing of the past. Hannah Arendt More Quotes by Hannah Arendt More Quotes From Hannah Arendt No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been. Hannah Arendt punishment criminals firsts Political institutions, no matter how well or badly designed, depend for continued existence upon acting men; their conservation is achieved by the same means that brought them into being. Independent existence marks the work of art as a product of making; utter dependence upon further acts to keep it in existence marks the state as a product of action. Hannah Arendt independent mean art Men always want to be terribly influential, but I see that as somewhat external. Do I imagine myself being influential? No. I want to understand. And if others understand--in the same sense that I have understood--that gives me a sense of satisfaction, like feeling at home. Hannah Arendt home giving men Culture is being threatened when all worldly objects and things, produced by the present or the past, are treated as mere functions for the life process of society, as though they are there only to fulfill some need, and for this functionalization it is almost irrelevant whether the needs in question are of a high or a low order. Hannah Arendt order past needs Action painting has to do with self-creation or self-definition or self-transcendence; but this dissociates it from self-expression, which assumes the acceptance of the ego as it is, with its wound and its magic. Hannah Arendt acceptance expression self War has become a luxury that only small nations can afford. Hannah Arendt women war peace There are no parallels to the life of the concentration camps. All seeming parallels create confusion and distract attention from what is essential. Forced labor in prisons and penal colonies, banishment, slavery, all seem for a moment to offer helpful comparisons, but on closer examination lead nowhere. Hannah Arendt holocaust essentials confusion 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. Hannah Arendt forgiving men promise For the possibilities of being different from what one is are infinite. Once one has negated oneself, however, there are no longer any particular choices. Hannah Arendt being-different infinite choices What really distinguishes this generation in all countries from earlier generations ... is its determination to act, its joy in action, the assurance of being able to change things by one's own efforts. Hannah Arendt change motivational country the rule of Nobody ... is what the political form known as bureaucracy truly is. Hannah Arendt bureaucracy form political Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche are for us like guideposts to a past which has lost its significance. Hannah Arendt significance lost past What I cannot live with may not bother another man's conscience. The result is that conscience will stand against conscience. Hannah Arendt results may men It is in the nature of a group and its power to turn against independence, the property of individual strength. Hannah Arendt independence individual-strength groups thinking beings have an urge to speak, speaking beings have an urge to think. Hannah Arendt speaking-up speak thinking We all carry fault within. Hannah Arendt faults 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. Hannah Arendt hypocrisy hypocrite evil Men in plural […] can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and themselves. Hannah Arendt meaningfulness make-sense men Of all human activities, only labor, and neither action nor work, is unending, progressing automatically in accordance with life itself and outside the range of willful decisions or humanly meaningful purposes. Hannah Arendt decision work meaningful Kant ... discovered "the scandal of reason," that is the fact that our mind is not capable of certain and verifiable knowledge regarding matters and questions that it nevertheless cannot help thinking about. Hannah Arendt matter mind thinking
