It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.
Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.
Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment.
If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.
There are very few men-and they are the exceptions-who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment
Self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment.
The object of defense is preservation; and since it is easier to hold ground than to take it, defense is easier than attack. But defense has a passive purpose: preservation; and attack a positive one: conquest.... If defense is the stronger form of war, yet has a negative object, it follows that it should be used only so long as weakness compels, and be abandoned as soon as we are strong enough to pursue a positive object.
Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.
It should be noted that the seeds of wisdom that are to bear fruit in the intellect are sown less by critical studies and learned monographs than by insights, broad impressions, and flashes of intuition.
Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.
Where absolute superiority is not attainable, you must produce a relative one at the decisive point by making skillful use ofwhat you have.
In short, absolute, so-called mathematical, factors never find a firm basis in military calculations. From the very start, there is an interplay of possibilities, probabilities, good luck and bad, that weaves its way throughout the length and breadth of the tapestry. In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.
Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.
The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish ... the kind of war on which they are embarking.
Desperate affairs require desperate remedies.
In war more than anywhere else, things do not turn out as we expect.
The general unreliability of all information presents a special problem in war: all action takes place, so to speak, in the twilight, which, like fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are. Whatever is hidden from full view in this feeble light has to be guessed at by talent, or simply left to chance. So once again for the lack of objective knowledge, one has to trust to talent or to luck.
The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.
The side that feels the lesser urge for peace will naturally get the better bargain.
Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
War is politics by other means.
Whoever does great things with small means has successfully reached the goal.
To discover how much of our resources must be mobilized for war, we must first examine our political aim and that of the enemy. We must gauge the strength and situation of the opposite state. We must gauge the character and abilities of its government and people and do the same in regard to our own. Finally, we must evaluate the political sympathies of other states and the effect the war may have on them.
Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them.
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