Quotation by

Hannah Arendt

It is in the very nature of things human that every act that has once made its appearance and has been recorded in the history of mankind stays with mankind as a potentiality long after its actuality has become a thing of the past.

Hannah Arendt

History

Understanding this quote AI Analysis

Hannah Arendt means that once a human action has happened and been documented in history, it remains available as a possibility for people in the future, even if the original event is over. This suggests that past actions continue to influence what humans can do later, rather than disappearing completely.

More by this author

All quotes by Hannah Arendt →

More quotes about History

See all →

Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

If I had been elected president in 1948, history would be vastly different. I believe we would have stemmed the growth of Big Government, which had begun with the New Deal and culminated with the Gre…

For most of our history, Americans enjoyed both liberty and security from foreign threats.

There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history. It is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.

This is a good time to ask apologists for the Islamic regime, who degrades Islam? Who imposes stoning, forced marriage of underage girls and flogging for not wearing the veil? Do such practices repre…

What would be the nicest thing I could say about Newt Gingrich? He may be one of the great supporters of the humanities, because you have people who don't want to study the social sciences, because i…