What we call isolation in the political sphere, is called loneliness in the sphere of social intercourse. Isolation and loneliness are not the same".." While isolation concerns only the political realm of life, loneliness concerns life as a whole. Totalitarian government, like all tyrannies, certainly could not exist without destroying the public realm of life, that is, without destroying, by isolating men, their political capacities. But totalitarian domination as a form of government is not content with this isolation and destroys private life as well. it bases its self on loneliness, on the experience of not belonging to the world at all, which is the most radical and desperate experiences of man . Hannah Arendt
About This Quote

The quote says that when we are in a bad situation it can be difficult to see the good in it for sometimes we feel so so alone and no one will come to our rescue. But once we find help and support it helped us understand that although life may seem hard, things will get so much better.

Source: The Origins Of Totalitarianism

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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.

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