Hannah Arendt

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Hannah Arendt (, US also ; German: [ˌhana ˈaːʁənt] ; born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German-American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.

Quotes from Hannah Arendt

The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of aggression, nor, finally and more plausibly, the serious economic and social dangers inherent in disarmament, but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene.

—Hannah Arendt

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war politics warfare resolution

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There is all the difference in the world between the criminal’s avoiding the public eye and the civil disobedient’s taking the law into his own hands in open defiance. This distinction between an open violation of the law, performed in public, and a clandestine one is so glaringly obvious that it can be neglected only by prejudice or ill will.

—Hannah Arendt

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activism prejudice law civil disobedience crime

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In the era of imperialism, businessmen became politicians and were acclaimed as statesmen, while statesmen were taken seriously only if they talked the language of successful businessmen.

—Hannah Arendt

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politics language business imperialism

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The insight that peace is the end of war, and that therefore a war is the preparation for peace, is at least as old as Aristotle, and the pretense that the aim of an armament race is to guard the peace is even older — namely, as old as the discovery of propaganda lies.

—Hannah Arendt

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war peace lies propaganda

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The earth is the very quintessence of the human condition.

—Hannah Arendt

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humanity earth human condition

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The true conservative is the man who has a real concern for injustices and takes thought against the day of reckoning.

—Hannah Arendt

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conservatives

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Equality...is the result of human organization. We are not born equal.

—Hannah Arendt

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equality

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Economic growth may one day turn out to be a curse rather than a good, and under no conditions can it either lead into freedom or constitute a proof for its existence.

—Hannah Arendt

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This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.

—Hannah Arendt

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