Quotes By Hannah Arendt

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.

By its very nature the beautiful is isolated from everything else. From beauty no road leads to reality.

To be free in an age like ours, one must be in a position of authority. That in itself would be enough to make me ambitious.

The trouble with lying and deceiving is that their efficiency depends entirely upon a clear notion of the truth that the liar and deceiver wishes to hide.

The more dubious and uncertain an instrument violence has become in international relations, the more it has gained in reputation and appeal in domestic affairs, specifically in the matter of revolution.

Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise.

Revolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then they can pick it up.

Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of culprits, and the very magnitude of the crime the best excuse for doing nothing.

The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all acts are but different means chosen to arrive at it.

Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.

Nothing we use or hear or touch can be expressed in words that equal what is given by the senses.

The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error.

These are the fifties, you know. The disgusting, posturing fifties.

Dedicate yourself to the good you deserve and desire for yourself. Give yourself peace of mind. You deserve to be happy. You deserve delight.