Q0096

Hannah Arendt

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Thinking is the habit of examining whatever happens to come to pass or to attract attention.
Thinker Hannah Arendt
School Political Philosophy
Source The Life of the Mind (on thinking)
Theme Thinking
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with The Life of the Mind (on thinking), within the tradition of Political Philosophy. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of thinking, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Hannah Arendt's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Hannah Arendt. (n.d.). Thinking is the habit of examining whatever happens to come to pass or to attract attention. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0096

MLA: Hannah Arendt. “Thinking is the habit of examining whatever happens….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0096.

Chicago: Hannah Arendt. “Thinking is the habit of examining whatever happens….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0096.

Same thinker

More from Hannah Arendt

  1. Men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world.
  2. Even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination.
  3. The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
  4. Forgiveness is the only reaction which does not merely re-act but acts anew and unexpectedly.
  5. the banality of evil

All quotations by Hannah Arendt

Same theme

More on thinking

  1. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
  2. The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
  3. the banality of evil
  4. What I propose… is nothing more than to think what we are doing.

Browse the thinking theme