Carl Schmitt

"To understand the political is to understand human existence itself."

"The sovereign moment reveals the true nature of all authority."

"Conflict is not an aberration in human affairs but their fundamental characteristic."

"Law is always a response to a prior political decision."

"The enemy is not evil; he is merely the other."

"Neutrality in politics is impossible; it is itself a political position."

"The age of the state is passing; the age of the exception is beginning."

"Political theology underlies all political structures whether acknowledged or not."

"Modern democracy has not eliminated elites; it has only disguised them."

"The constitution is an act of will, not a neutral framework."

"Decisionism is not lawlessness; it is the foundation of law itself."

"All legal order rests ultimately on a decision that cannot be legalized."

"The political cannot be rationalized away through procedural mechanisms."

"Enemies are recognizable by their opposition to your fundamental existence."

"The state is the ultimate expression of collective will to survive and dominate."

"To speak of universal principles is to ignore concrete political situations."

"Authority rests on the recognition of superior decision-making capacity."

"The friend-enemy distinction is not moral but existential."

"Legal formalism is the refuge of those who refuse to acknowledge power."

"Modernity has intensified rather than resolved political struggle."

"The exception is the truth of which the rule is only the appearance."

"Politics is the realm of possibility, not mechanical necessity."

"Legitimacy belongs to he who can command obedience in the moment of crisis."

"The state cannot eliminate conflict; it can only contain and direct it."

"To understand your enemy is the first requirement of political wisdom."

"Law without enforcement is merely suggestion."

"The political order is always and everywhere based on prior conflict."

"Reason alone cannot adjudicate between fundamental political differences."

"The sovereign is not bound by the rules he creates for others."

"Modern nationalism is the form in which the friend-enemy distinction appears today."