Culture is being threatened when all worldly objects and things, produced by the present or the past, are treated as mere functions for the life process of society, as though they are there only to fulfill some need, and for this functionalization it is almost irrelevant whether the needs in question are of a high or a low order.
Hannah ArendtThey must remember that they are constantly on the run, and that the world's reality is actually expressed by their escape.
Hannah ArendtAll political institutions are manifestations and materializations of power; they petrify and decay as soon as the living power of the people ceases to uphold them.
Hannah ArendtThat Hegelian dialectics should provide a wonderful instrument for always being right, because they permit the interpretations of all defeats as the beginning of victory, is obvious. One of the most beautiful examples of this kind of sophistry occurred after 1933 when the German Communists for nearly two years refused to recognize that Hitler's victory had been a defeat for the German Communist Party.
Hannah Arendt