Quotes from John J. Mearsheimer

The sad fact is that international politics has always been a ruthless and dangerous business, and it is likely to remain that way.

In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler believed that his great-power rivals would be easy to exploit and isolate because each had little interest in fighting Germany and instead was determined to get someone else to assume the burden. He guessed right.

Great powers of all persuasions care deeply about their survival, and there is always the danger in a bipolar or multipolar system that they will be attacked by another great power. In these circumstances, liberal great powers regularly dress up their hard-nosed behavior with liberal rhetoric. They talk like liberals and act like realists. Should they adopt liberal policies that are at odds with realist logic, they invariably come to regret it.

Europe doesn't matter anymore. You know, Europe is basically a giant museum.

In other words, are humans fundamentally social animals who strive hard to carve out room for their individuality, or are they individuals who form social contracts?

The aim of states is to be the biggest and baddest dude on the block because if you're the biggest and baddest dude on the block, then it is highly unlikely that any other state will challenge you simply because you're so powerful.

those who believe in facts and logic will quickly discover that the United States and its Allies are mainly responsible for this trainwreck. the April 2008 decision to bring Ukraine and Georgia into Nato was destined to lead to conflict with Russia. the Bush administration was the principal architect of that fateful choice, but the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations have doubled down on that policy at every turn...

If you really want to wreck Russia, encourage them to try and swallow Ukraine. That's like swallowing a porcupine.

we made all the necessary rhetorical changes to make it look like we were aligning ourselves with a burgeoning democracy...

Leaders lie to each other and to their own people because they believe that doing so serves the national interest. And the sad fact is that lying sometimes does make good strategic sense.