"The Banality of Evil"

Adell 2022-04-22 07:01:49

"The trouble with a Nazi criminal like Eichmann was that he insisted on renouncing all personal qualities, as if there was nobody left to be either punished or forgiven. He protested time and again, contrasted to the Prosecution's assertions, that he had never done anything out of his own initiative, that he had no intentions whatsoever, good or bad, that he had only obeyed orders. This typical Nazi.plea... makes it clear that the greatest evil in the world is the evil committed by nobodies.Evil committed by men without motive, without convictions, without wicked hearts or demonic wills, by human beings who refuse to be persons. And it is this phenomenon that I have called the 'banality of evil'."

"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never makeup their minds to be good or evil."

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Hannah Arendt quotes

  • Heinrich Blücher: Dearest. Don't cry.

    Hannah Arendt: I spoke to the doctor. He said you only have a fifty percent chance.

    Heinrich Blücher: Don't forget the other fifty percent.

  • Hans Jonas: But Eichmann is a monster. And when I say monster, I don't mean Satan. You don't need to be smart or powerful to behave like a monster.

    Hannah Arendt: You're being too simplistic. What's new about the Eichmann phenomenon is that there are so many just like him. He's a terrifyingly normal human being.