Hannah Arendt
Born: 10-13-1906
Hannah Arendt was a German-born political theorist known for her profound analyses of totalitarianism, authority, and the nature of power. Her seminal works, including "The Human Condition" and "Eichmann in Jerusalem," explore the complexities of human society and morality. Fleeing the Nazi regime, she emigrated to the United States, where she became a prominent intellectual figure, influencing political thought and philosophy throughout the 20th century.
Book summaries for books written by Hannah Arendt
Quotes
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.
The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal.
The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error.
The point is that truth, even if it serves no end, is still indispensable to freedom.
Totalitarian movements are mass organizations of atomized, isolated individuals.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist.
The very moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen.
The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen.
Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.