But although the cliche says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said ... is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary. ...

“What is it, stupidity or treason? (A voice on the left: “Treason!” [Someone else]: “Stupidity!” Laughter.)
- Paul Miliukov, leader of the Constitutional Democrats, speech in Duma, November 1916

Stephen Kotkin, 2014, Stalin, NY: Penguin Press, 139.

"Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any."

-Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 3.82.4
(via S. Jayakumar)

“I think Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretences. It doesn’t necessarily mean that he knows this, or that he is considering any great alternative ...”
Henry Kissinger, 2018

on.ft.com/3emwRty

“I think isolationism is a kind of an old word from a hundred years ago, when it took five days to travel from America to Europe by luxury steamship or something. It doesn't work for our world.”
Robert D. Kaplan

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

“On the broad continuum of foreign policy, countries and leaders work with strategic perspectives and tactical ideas. Some have a poor grasp of strategy, and may be caught up with just tactical moves.”

Lee Kuan Yew to the SG Parliament, 9 Nov 1965

Way too many people are looking at this "map" and going "What's so hard about geopolitics?"