Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.

All significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts.

The metaphysical image that a definite epoch forges of the world has the same structure as what the world immediately understands to be appropriate as a form of its political organization.

The exception is more interesting than the rule. The rule proves nothing; the exception proves everything. In the exception the power of real life breaks through the crust of a mechanism that has become torpid by repetition.

Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.

The specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemy.

All law is situational law. The sovereign produces and guarantees the situation in its totality. He has the monopoly over this last decision.