Q0522

“Power corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to…” — Hannah Arendt (On Violence (1970))

Verified English quotation. Primary source: On Violence (1970). Theme: power.

English

Power corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to act in concert.
Thinker Hannah Arendt
School Political Phenomenology
Source On Violence (1970)
Theme Power
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to On Violence (1970) 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

Philosophers analyze domination, authority, freedom, and the micro-politics of everyday life. Power can enable justice or crush it. This passage enters that discussion through power, action.

Concepts in this quote

Power
Power is the capacity to affect others and to shape what counts as possible—central to politics and ethics.
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.). Power corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to act in concert. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0522

MLA: Hannah Arendt. “Power corresponds to the human ability not just….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0522.

Chicago: Hannah Arendt. “Power corresponds to the human ability not just….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0522.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Power corresponds to the human ability not just…”?

The passage is attributed to Hannah Arendt, On Violence (1970). The archive attributes this English wording to On Violence (1970) 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 power?

Philosophers analyze domination, authority, freedom, and the micro-politics of everyday life. Power can enable justice or crush it. This passage enters that discussion through power, action.

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 power

  1. For knowledge itself is power.
  2. When the age changes, affairs change; when affairs change, preparations must change.
  3. During the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called War.
  4. The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.
  5. Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.

Browse the power theme