Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers corresponded from 1926 for forty years, their long conversation at a distance interrupted only by Arendt's emigration

Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers corresponded from 1926 for forty years, their long conversation at a distance interrupted only by Arendt's emigration. Pupil and teacher became, over the years, not merely each other's correspondents but good friends, and their families even grew close. Their correspondence is a genuine history of the twentieth century, a history of thought, a history of philosophising, and a veritable treasury of wisdom. It was in these letters that the words "There is no apolitical insurance against politics" were born. But I want to dwell on one remark Arendt made when she came to Basel for Jaspers's funeral. She said something so important that I usually keep it in mind in relation to certain significant people of our world: there are Jaspers's books, and in essence these books do not need us; it is we who need them, we who must read them.