Skip to content

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.

— Alexandre Kojève The Notion of Authority (2020)

Another quote →

Topics

Politics

More quotes by Alexandre Kojève

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

The Notion of Authority (2020)

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)

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)

All Alexandre Kojève quotes →

You may also like

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

Albert Einstein

Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Mao Zedong

Three-fourths of the Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state.

Benito Mussolini

Fear and destructiveness are the major emotional sources of fascism, eros belongs mainly to democracy.

Theodor Adorno The Authoritarian Personality (1950)

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.