Totalitarianism is never content to rule by external means, namely, through the state and a machinery of violence; thanks to its peculiar ideology and the role assigned to it in this apparatus of coercion, totalitarianism has discovered a means of dominating and terrorizing human beings from within. – Hannah Arendt
Every organization of men, be it social or political, ultimately relies on mans capacity for making promises and keeping them. – Hannah Arendt
Ideas, as distinguished from events, are never unprecedented. – Hannah Arendt
This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst expect the best and take what comes. – Hannah Arendt
The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid. – Denis Diderot