Q0354

“the banality of evil” — Hannah Arendt (Eichmann in Jerusalem)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Eichmann in Jerusalem. Theme: responsibility.

English

the banality of evil
Thinker Hannah Arendt
School Political Phenomenology
Source Eichmann in Jerusalem
Theme Responsibility
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Eichmann in Jerusalem 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.

How to read this passage

Philosophical debates cover free will, blame, collective responsibility, and duties to distant others. Technology and AI revive the question of who is accountable when systems act. This passage enters that discussion through responsibility.

Concepts in this quote

Responsibility
Responsibility asks what we answer for—our choices, omissions, institutions, and the futures we help create.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Hannah Arendt. (n.d.). the banality of evil In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0354

MLA: Hannah Arendt. “the banality of evil.” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0354.

Chicago: Hannah Arendt. “the banality of evil.” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0354.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “the banality of evil”?

The passage is attributed to Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem. The archive attributes this English wording to Eichmann in Jerusalem 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 responsibility?

Philosophical debates cover free will, blame, collective responsibility, and duties to distant others. Technology and AI revive the question of who is accountable when systems act. This passage enters that discussion through responsibility.

Explore Hannah Arendt on responsibility

Same thinker

More from Hannah Arendt

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

All quotations by Hannah Arendt

Same theme

More on responsibility

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the responsibility theme