Quote

1969·New York City, United States

Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent. Violence appears where power is in jeopardy, but left to its own course it ends in power's disappearance.

Similar Thoughts

Napoleon Bonaparte·1800

All authority is in the throne; and what is the throne? This wooden frame covered with velvet? No, I am the throne.

Mahatma Gandhi·1925

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good. I swear by non-violence because I know that it alone conduces to the highest good of mankind, not merely in the next world, but in this also. I object to violence because, when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.

Thucydides·416 BC

The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

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More from Hannah Arendt

1968

Political questions are far too serious to be left to the politicians.

1978

The sad truth of the matter is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be or do either evil or good.

1989

Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.

Locus

New York City, United States

Tempus