Hannah Arendt Quotes

Whatever is the strongest power in society will obtain the governing authority; and a change in the political constitution cannot be durable unless preceded or accompanied by an altered distribution of power in society itself

While strength is the natural quality of an individual seen in isolation, power springs up between men when they act together and vanishes the moment they disperse.

Any time people come together in a meeting, we're not necessarily getting the best ideas; we're just getting the ideas of the best talkers.

Neither, I must say with all due respect, is it the power of teachers and students. Basically the true and real power is with working people of all colors, of all beliefs, of all national origins.

It's a clique and I think a clique exists in every business. There's a circle of people that are guaranteed to open a movie and we all know their names and whether they're right or wrong for the role.

A mob is not, as is so often said, mindless. A mob is single-minded.

When like-minded people deliberate as an organized group, the general opinion shifts towards extreme versions of their common beliefs.

Where men have general rights, and are all guided, as it were, by one mind, it is certain that every individual has the less right the more the rest collectively exceed him in power

It’s only at certain points in history that people realize just how much power that they have.

Collective action is a means of power, a means by which individuals can more fully realize their individual values.

… when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an Assembly can a perfect production be expected?

A crowd is always impressed by the sum of its own number.

Reality is self-defined as the mob, any mob, writes its own history, never to be contradicted by the quiet statement of truth.

When fringe groups gather, there is power in that.

On 'Sound of My Voice,' I was the first and last word, which is kind of a dictatorship. I like collectives, though.

UNU provides a continuous feedback loop of the group's preference for a choice, as well as its conviction. People are adjusting their levels of conviction based on the completeness of their own knowledge on the subject.

There's a momentum to being committed to a group that you think is good, and there's a certain amount of cognitive dissonance to make your choice a good choice.

I've always found that in a team of 15 people, it's a little different than in a team of 40 or 50 people. If I name two or three people captains, inevitably you're disempowering more than you're empowering.

The thing that can happen in a TV room is you can get 'teamthink': you can all go down a crazy path together.

... there is a particular propensity in the world for people, wherever they appear in great numbers, to permit themselves collectively everything that would be forbidden them individually.

Inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided upon a number, than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction . . . will often hurry the persons of whom they were composed into improprieties and excesses for which they would blush in a private capacity.

we certainly do not want to abolish power, that would be abolishing life itself, but we need a new orientation toward it.

Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living, and it is only the man dwelling in isolation who is not forced to respond, through defiance or submission, to the commands of others.

One woman is a pest and two women is a team, but three women or more is a coalition. If you can bring a lot of people together as a coalition, you can get a lot changed.