The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 19 [Lord Harry] (1891)
(Source)
Quotations about:
collective guilt
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
I do not hate in the plural.
P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) Anglo-American humorist, playwright and lyricist [Pelham Grenville Wodehouse]
(Attributed)
When asked, as a former WWII internee, whether he hate the Germans (or the Nazis).
George Orwell, writing in 1945 a defense of Wodehouse's actions while an internee, quoted him in a more complex version of this:I never was interested in politics. I’m quite unable to work up any kind of belligerent feeling. Just as I’m about to feel belligerent about some country I meet a decent sort of chap. We go out together and lose any fighting thoughts or feelings.
Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of culprits, and the very magnitude of the crime the best excuse for doing nothing.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Essay (1969-02-27), “Reflections on Violence,” The New York Review of Books
(Source)
Revised and collected in Crises of the Republic, "On Violence" (1972).
In a courtroom there is no system on trial, no History or historical trend, no ism, anti-Semitism for instance, but a person, and if the defendant happens to be a functionary, he stands accused precisely because even a functionary is still a human being, and it is in this capacity that he stands trial.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Essay (1964-08), “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship,” The Listener Magazine
(Source)
On war crimes trials in general, and the Eichmann trial in particular.
Collected in Responsibility and Judgment, Part 1 "Responsibility" (2003).
There is no such thing as collective guilt or collective innocence; guilt and innocence make sense only if applied to individuals.
The worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being.
Ellen Key (1849-1926) Swedish feminist and writer
War, Peace, and the Future, ch. 6 (1916) [tr. Norberg]
(Source)
