The Origins of Totalitarianism

by Hannah Arendt

its hallmark is impotence insofar as power always comes from men acting together, “acting in concert” (Burke); isolated men are powerless by definition.

Isolation and impotence, that is the fundamental inability to act at all, have always been characteristic of tyrannies.

Loneliness is not solitude. Solitude requires being alone whereas loneliness shows itself most sharply in company with others.

the lonely man (eremos) finds himself surrounded by others with whom he cannot establish contact or to whose hostility he is exposed.

In solitude, in other words, I am “by myself,” together with my self, and therefore two-in-one, whereas in loneliness I am actually one, deserted by all others.

What makes loneliness so unbearable is the loss of one’s own self which can be realized in solitude, but confirmed in its identity only by the trusting and trustworthy company of my equals.

A lonely man, says Luther, “always deduces one thing from the other and thinks everything to the worst.”