Top 9 Quotes by Hans Morgenthau

The statesman must think in terms of the national interest, conceived as power among other powers. The popular mind, unaware of the fine distinctions of the statesman's thinking, reasons more often than not in the

The statesman must think in terms of the national interest, conceived as power among other powers. The popular mind, unaware of the fine distinctions of the statesman's thinking, reasons more often than not in the simple moralistic and legalistic terms of absolute good and absolute evil.

Hans Morgenthau

Simple, Thinking, Evil

Hans Morgenthau (1955). “Politics Among Nations”

Man is born to seek power, yet his actual condition makes him a slave to the power of others.

Hans Morgenthau

Power, Men, Slave

Power positions do not yield to arguments, however rationally and morally valid, but only to superior power.

Hans Morgenthau

Yield, Argument, Position

Hans Joachim Morgenthau, Kenneth W. Thompson (1977). “A Tribute to Hans Morgenthau: truth and tragedy : with an intellectual autobiography by Hans J. Morgenthau”, New Republic Books

Man is a political animal by nature; he is a scientist by chance or choice; he is a moralist because he is a man.

Hans Morgenthau

Animal, Men, Choices

When we speak of power, we mean man's control over the minds and actions of other men. By political power we refer to the mutual relations of control among the holders of public authority and between the latter and the people at large.

Hans Morgenthau

Mean, Men, People

Hans Morgenthau (1955). “Politics Among Nations”

Political realism is aware of the moral significance of political action. It is also aware of the ineluctable tension between the moral command and the requirements of successful political action. And it is unwilling to gloss over and obliterate that tension and thus to obfuscate both the moral and the political issue by making it appear as though the stark facts of politics were morally more satisfying than they actually are, and the moral law less exacting than it actually is.

Hans Morgenthau

Successful, Law, Issues

Hans Joachim Morgenthau (1993). “Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace”, McGraw-Hill Humanities Social