Hans J. Morgenthau

“We must distinguish between military and political power. Political power is a psychological relation between those who exercise it and those over…

— Hans J. Morgenthau

“However much the theory of political realism may have been misunderstood and misinterpreted, there is no gainsaying its distinctive intellectual and moral…

— Hans J. Morgenthau

“The struggle for power is universal in time and space and is an undeniable fact of experience. It cannot be denied that…

— Hans J. Morgenthau

“The philosophy of rationalism has misunderstood the nature of man, the nature of the social world, and the nature of reason itself.…

— Hans J. Morgenthau

“Political realism believes that politics, like society in general, is governed by objective laws that have their roots in human nature. In…

— Hans J. Morgenthau

“Political realism refuses to identify the moral aspirations of a particular nation with the moral laws that govern the universe. As it…

— Hans J. Morgenthau

“Politics is an art and not a science, and what is required for its mastery is not the rationality of the engineer…

— Hans J. Morgenthau

“Realism maintains that universal moral principles cannot be applied to the actions of states in their abstract universal formulation, but that they…

— Hans J. Morgenthau