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It is from Eternity that the representatives of God on earth derive their Authority.

— Alexandre Kojève The Notion of Authority (2020)

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More quotes by Alexandre Kojève

Obviously, absolute Authority in the strong sense of the word is never realised in fact. Only God is held to possess it.

The Notion of Authority (2020)

A Revolution is nothing other than the replacement of one given type of Authority with another.

The Notion of Authority (2020)

There has to be a risk of the death sentence in order for 'mastery' to exist.

The Notion of Authority (2020)

In all times and ages, political crimes have always been punished more severely than others – even in the degenerate State of Nicholas II. The fact that in modern 'democracies' we lean towards political clemency proves only one thing: the loss of any sense of the 'political' in general.

The Notion of Authority (2020)

The Authority of the 'man of the moment' pertains to the fact that it is he, par excellence, who represents 'actuality', the Present, the 'real presence' of something in the world (Hegel's Gegenwart), as opposed to the 'poetic' unreality of the past and the 'utopian' unreality of the future.

The Notion of Authority (2020)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

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From now on, everything in life will appear blurry to me. What’s the point of wiping my glasses when my vision has already left me?"

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You can never plan the future by the past.

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Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

Abraham Cowley Poems (1656)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alexandre Kojève (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.