B. H. Liddell Hart Quotes

Quotes about:

• The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Ideas, Mind

  "What's Up With All These Planes Landing At The Wrong Airport?" by Robert Bateman, www.esquire.com. February 10, 2014.

  64 Copy quote

• The most dangerous error is failure to recognize our own tendency to error.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Errors, Tendencies, Dangerous

  B.H. Liddell Hart (2015). “Why Don't We Learn from History?”, p.24, Lulu Press, Inc

  31 Copy quote

• In strategy the longest way round is often the shortest way there- a direct approach to the object exhausts the attacker and hardens the resistance by compression, whereas an indirect approach loosens the defender's hold by upsetting his balance.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Power, History

  14 Copy quote

• In war, the chief incalculable is the human will.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Marine Corps

  60 Copy quote

• If you want peace, understand war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Want, Ifs

  42 Copy quote

• The downfall of civilized states tends to come not from the direct assaults of foes, but from internal decay combined with the consequences of exhaustion in war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Decay

  24 Copy quote

• Ensure that both plan and dispositions are flexible, adaptable to circumstances. Your plan should foresee and provide for a next step in case of success or failure.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Thinking, Next Steps, Should

  29 Copy quote

• The theory of the indirect approach operates on the line of least expectation.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Expectations, Lines, Indirect

  13 Copy quote

• War is always a matter of doing evil in the hope that good may come of it.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Evil

  10 Copy quote

• The unexpected cannot guarantee success, but it guarantees the best chance of success.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Guarantees, Chance

  9 Copy quote

• Air Power is, above all, a psychological weapon - and only short-sighted soldiers, too battle-minded, underrate the importance of psychological factors in war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Air, Soldier

  21 Copy quote

• For whoever habitually suppresses the truth in the interests of tact will produce a deformity from the womb of his thought.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Deformity, Produce

  B.H. Liddell Hart (2015). “Why Don't We Learn from History?”, p.62, Lulu Press, Inc

  21 Copy quote

• Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Self, Society, Devil

  B.H. Liddell Hart (2015). “Why Don't We Learn from History?”, p.60, Lulu Press, Inc

  7 Copy quote

• Direct pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Opponents, Resistance

  12 Copy quote

• The profoundest truth of war is that the issue of battle is usually decided in the minds of the opposing commanders, not in the bodies of their men.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Truth, War, Power

  B. H. Liddell Hart (2009). “Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American”, p.10, Da Capo Press

  26 Copy quote

• I used to think that the causes of war were predominantly economic. I came to think that they were more psychological. I am now coming to think that they are decisively "personal," arising from the defects and ambitions of those who have the power to influence the currents of nations.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Ambition, Thinking

  10 Copy quote

• A complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Bars, Satisfaction, Pursuit

  21 Copy quote

• Every action is seen to fall into one of three main categories, guarding, hitting, or moving. Here, then, are the elements of combat, whether in war or pugilism.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Moving, Fall

  9 Copy quote

• The most effective indirect approach is one that lures or startles the opponent into a false move - so that, as in ju-jitsu, his own effort is turned into the lever of his overthrow.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Moving, Effort

  24 Copy quote

• It should be the aim of grand strategy to discover and pierce the Achilles' heel of the opposing government's power to make war. Strategy, in turn, should seek to penetrate a joint in the harness of the opposing forces. To apply one's strength where the opponent is strong weakens oneself disproportionately to the effect attained. To strike with strong effect, one must strike at weakness.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Strong, Military, War

  10 Copy quote

• Loss of hope rather than loss of life is what decides the issues of war. But helplessness induces hopelessness.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Loss, Issues

  13 Copy quote

• The military weapon is but one of the means that serve the purposes of war: one out of the assortment which grand strategy can employ.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Mean

  10 Copy quote

• Inflict the least possible permanent injury, for the enemy of to-day is the customer of the morrow and the ally of the future

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Enemy, Allies

  14 Copy quote

• In war the chief incalculable is the human will, which manifests itself in resistance, which in turn lies in the province of tactics. Strategy has not to overcome resistance, except from nature. Its purpose is to diminish the possibility of resistance, and it seeks to fulfil this purpose by exploiting the elements of movement and surprise.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Lying

  20 Copy quote

• In the case of a state that is seeking not conquest but the maintenance of its security, the aim is fulfilled if the threat is removed - if the enemy is led to abandon his purpose.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Enemy, Purpose

  15 Copy quote

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