Imperialism was born when the ruling class in capitalist production came up against national limitations to its economic expansion. The bourgeoisie turned to politics out of economic necessity; for if it did not want to give up the capitalist system whose inherent law is constant economic growth, it had to impose this law upon its home governments and to proclaim expansion to be an ultimate political goal of foreign policy. Hannah Arendt
Some Similar Quotes
  1. War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or... - John Stuart Mill

  2. Words are better than weapons, wisdom is better than war. - Amit Kalantri

  3. I am not one of those who believes–as Obama is said to believe–that a solution to the Palestinian statehood question would bring an end to Muslim resentment against the United States. (Incidentally, if he really does believe this, his lethargy and impotence in the face... - Christopher Hitchens

  4. Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none - Thomas Jefferson

  5. First Afghanistan, now Iraq. So who's next? Syria? North Korea? Iran? Where will it all end?' If these illegal interventions are permitted to continue, the implication seems to be, pretty soon, horror of horrors, no murderously repressive regimes might remain. - Daniel Kofman

More Quotes By Hannah Arendt
  1. I'm more than ever of the opinion that a decent human existence is possible today only on the fringes of society, where one then runs the risk of starving or being stoned to death. In these circumstances, a sense of humor is a great help.

  2. When an old truth ceases to be applicable, it does not become any truer by being stood on its head.

  3. The common prejudice that love is as common as "romance" may be due to the fact that we all learned about it first through poetry. But the poets fool us; they are the only ones to whom love is not only a crucial, but an...

  4. The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any.

  5. The world and the people who inhabit it are not the same. The world lies between people, and this in-between — much more than (as is often thought) men or even man — is today the object of the greatest concern and the most obvious...

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