Q0353
“Forgiveness is the only reaction which does not merely re-act but acts…” — Hannah Arendt (The Human Condition)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: The Human Condition. Theme: action.
English
Forgiveness is the only reaction which does not merely re-act but acts anew and unexpectedly.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to The Human Condition and files it under Political Phenomenology. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) was a German-Jewish political theorist who fled Nazism and wrote in the United States in English and German. A student of Heidegger and Jaspers, she refused the label “philosopher” yet produced lasting works on totalitarianism, revolution, and the vita activa.
Interpretation
Arendt argues that forgiveness and promising are the two capacities that make action bearable. Action is irreversible — what is done cannot be undone — so without forgiveness its consequences would accumulate into something no one could act within. Forgiveness, on her account, is not forgetting or excusing; it is a response to what was done that releases the doer from its consequences. She is careful that it is the act that is addressed, not the person excused.
Why it matters
It reframes forgiveness as a condition for continued action rather than as a favour to the person forgiven, which is partly why it is so hard.
Concepts in this quote
- Action
- Action concerns agency: what it is to do something intentionally, and how thought becomes practice.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Hannah Arendt. (n.d.). Forgiveness is the only reaction which does not merely re-act but acts anew and unexpectedly. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0353
MLA: Hannah Arendt. “Forgiveness is the only reaction which does not….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0353.
Chicago: Hannah Arendt. “Forgiveness is the only reaction which does not….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0353.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “Forgiveness is the only reaction which does not…”?
The passage is attributed to Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition. The archive attributes this English wording to The Human Condition and files it under Political Phenomenology. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Hannah Arendt mean by action?
Philosophy of action asks how intentions, reasons, habits, and consequences hang together. Ethical traditions often insist that knowing the good is incomplete without doing it. This passage enters that discussion through action.