1001Philosophers

Hannah Arendt Quotes on Mind

Hannah Arendt was a 20th-century German-American political theorist whose work shaped post-war thinking about totalitarianism, political action, and moral responsibility. This page collects quotes attributed to Hannah Arendt on the topic of mind, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

    The Life of the Mind (1978), "Thinking
  • Attributed to Hannah Arendt:

    “There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.”

  • Attributed to Hannah Arendt:

    “What makes loneliness so unbearable is the loss of one's own self which can be realized in solitude.”

  • “No one has the right to obey . Paradoxical aphorism asserting the responsibility of everyone to engage in critical thinking in response to unjustly oppressive commands or demands against rationality or humanity , implying automatic obedience to tyranny as a betrayal of both, and referencing Immanuel Kant 's philosophical perspectives, in a radio interview with Joachim Fest (9 November 1964); also often rendered as " Niemand hat das Recht zu gehorchen.”

    Kein Mensch hat das Recht zu gehorchen.