“In politics, love is a stranger, and when it intrudes upon it nothing is being achieved except hypocrisy.”

— Hannah Arendt

Letter to James Baldwin (21 November 1962).
General sources
Context: In politics, love is a stranger, and when it intrudes upon it nothing is being achieved except hypocrisy. All the characteristics you stress in the Negro people: their beauty, their capacity for joy, their warmth, and their humanity, are well-known characteristics of all oppressed people. They grow out of suffering and they are the proudest possession of all pariahs. Unfortunately, they have never survived the hour of liberation by even five minutes. Hatred and love belong together, and they are both destructive; you can afford them only in private and, as a people, only so long as you are not free.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In politics, love is a stranger, and when it intrudes upon it nothing is being achieved except hypocrisy." by Hannah Arendt?

Hannah Arendt photo

Hannah Arendt85

Jewish-American political theorist 1906–1975

Related quotes

“But nothing is so strange when one is in love (and what was this except being in love?) as the complete indifference of other people.”

Virginia Woolf book Mrs Dalloway

Source: Mrs. Dalloway

“Being a stranger is hard, but being a stranger when you're so impossibly close is unbearable.”

Herta Müller book The Hunger Angel

Source: The Hunger Angel (2012), p. 261

“Politeness, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Love is beautiful only when you are secretly loved by a stranger.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“… nothing ever happens quickly (except when it does). Nothing is ever, ever easy (except when it is). And, most of all, nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan (except in the movies).”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

“Nothing is mysterious, no human relation. Except love.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980

“When couples start a family, they give up their personal love to achieve a greater responsibility - to nurture their children into good human beings. Nothing should deter them from that goal until the kids are up on their own feet”

Siddharth Katragadda (1972) Indian writer

page 112
Dark Rooms (2002)

“Hate begets hate, violence engenders violence, hypocrisy is answered by hypocrisy, war generates war, and love creates love.”

Pitirim Sorokin (1889–1968) American sociologist

Source: The Ways and Power of Love (1954), p. xi

“Nothing in reality exists, except God, the Absolute Being.”

Shah Badakhshi Indian poet

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 202

“Being a Christian means that I am called upon to do battle against lies, injustice, cruelty, hypocrisy — you know, all the virtues in the church of liberalism.”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

2006, Human Events interview (2006)

Related topics