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Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold your life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time
Hannah Arendt
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Embracing life becomes simpler when you are away from familiar surroundings, allowing for personal mastery and self-discovery.

This quote by Hannah Arendt articulates the idea that being in an unfamiliar environment, such as being abroad, liberates an individual and grants them a unique perspective on life. In these moments of solitude and independence, one is empowered to take control of their own experiences and identity, allowing for deeper self-mastery and personal growth that might be hindered in familiar settings.

Themes

LifeAbroadSelf-DiscoveryMasteryIndependence

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech about personal growth and exploration.

More from Hannah Arendt

A life spent entirely in public, in the presence of others, becomes, as we would say, shallow. While it retains its visibility, it loses its quality of rising into sight from some darker ground which must remain hidden if it is not to lose its depth in a very real, non-subjective sense.
Hannah ArendtRead
Politically speaking, tribal nationalism [patriotism] always insists that its own people are surrounded by 'a world of enemies' - 'one against all' - and that a fundamental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man.
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We are wont to see friendship solely as a phenomenon of intimacy in which the friends open their hearts to each other unmolested by the world and its demands...Thus it is hard for us to understand the political relevance of friendship...But for the Greeks the essence of friendship consisted in discourse...The converse (in contrast to the intimate talk in which individuals speak about themselves), permeated though it may be by pleasure in the friend’s presence, is concerned with the common world.
Hannah ArendtRead
Our tradition of political thought had its definite beginning in the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. I believe it came to a no less definite end in the theories of Karl Marx.
Hannah ArendtRead
Even though we have lost yardsticks by which to measure, and rules under which to subsume the particular, a being whose essence is a beginning may have enough of origin within himself to understand without preconceived categories and to judge without the set of customary rules which is morality.
Hannah ArendtRead
It is the nature of beginning that something new is started which cannot be expected from whatever may have happened before. This character of startling unexpectedness is inherent in all beginnings.
Hannah ArendtRead

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Quote by Hannah Arendt | QuoteProject