Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 141.
“Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility.”
Source: The Origins of Totalitarianism
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Hannah Arendt 85
Jewish-American political theorist 1906–1975Related quotes
Chap. 3 : What Can History Tell Us about Contemporary Society?
On History (1997)
Cited in: Eric Shiraev (2010) A History of Psychology: A Global Perspective. p. 314
A History of Experimental Psychology, 1929
Dedication (1960)
Context: Today is for my cause a day of days.
And his be poetry's old-fashioned praise
Who was the first to think of such a thing.
This verse that in acknowledgement I bring
Goes back to the beginning of the end
Of what had been for centuries the trend;
A turning point in modern history.
“Whole ideologies had to be constructed to account for being modern and to explain it.”
Source: The Long Emergency (2005), Chapter 2, p. 22.
Source: The Social History of Art', Volume II. Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, 1999, Chapter 9. The Baroque of the Catholic Courts
What is to be Done? (1902)
Gustav Mahler, page 78. Originally written for a volume dedicated to Mahler edited by Paul Stephan, Munich 1910.
Recollections and Reflections
Nobel lecture (2001)
Context: The idea that there is one people in possession of the truth, one answer to the world’s ills, or one solution to humanity’s needs, has done untold harm throughout history — especially in the last century. Today, however, even amidst continuing ethnic conflict around the world, there is a growing understanding that human diversity is both the reality that makes dialogue necessary, and the very basis for that dialogue.
We understand, as never before, that each of us is fully worthy of the respect and dignity essential to our common humanity. We recognize that we are the products of many cultures, traditions and memories; that mutual respect allows us to study and learn from other cultures; and that we gain strength by combining the foreign with the familiar.