B. H. Liddell Hart Quotes About War

Quotes about: War

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

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Marine Corps

• If you want peace, understand war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Want, Ifs

• 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

• Guerrilla war is a kind of war waged by the few but dependent on the support of many.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Support, Kind

• 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

• 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

• If we clear the air of the fog of catchwords which surround the conduct of war, and grasp that in the human will lies the source and mainspring of all conflict, as of all other activities of man's life, it becomes clear that our object in war can only be attained by the subjugation of the opposing will. All acts, such as defeat in the field, propaganda, blockade, diplomacy, or attack on the centres of government and population, are seen to be but means to that end.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Lying, Mean

• 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

• 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

• As has happened so often in history, victory had bred a complacency and fostered an orthodoxy which led to defeat in the next war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Victory

• The predominance of moral factors in all military decisions. On them constantly turns the issue of war and battle. In the history of war they form the more constant factors, changing only in degree, whereas the physical factors are different in almost every war and every military situation.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Issues

  B.H. Liddell Hart (2015). “Why Don't We Learn from History?”, p.9, Lulu Press, Inc

• If you find your opponent in a strong position costly to force, you should leave him a line of retreat as the quickest way of loosening his resistance. It should, equally, be a principle of policy, especially in war, to provide your opponent with a ladder by which he can climb down.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Strong, Military, War

• 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

• While there are many causes for which a state goes to war, its fundamental object can be epitomized as that of ensuring the continuance of its policy - in face of the determination of the opposing state to pursue a contrary policy. In the human will lies the source and mainspring of conflict.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Determination, Military, War

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

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Evil

• 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

• To ensure attaining an objective, one should have alternate objectives. An attack that converges on one point should threaten, and be able to diverge against another. Only by this flexibility of aim can strategy be attuned to the uncertainty of war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Should Have

• The higher level of grand strategy [is] that of conducting war with a far-sighted regard to the state of the peace that will follow.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Levels

• 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

• In any problem where an opposing force exists and cannot be regulated, one must foresee and provide for alternative courses. Adaptability is the law which governs survival in war as in life ... To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it; the best chance of overcoming such obstruction is to have a plan that can be easily varied to fit the circumstances met.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Law

• 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

• 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

• The urge to gain release from tension by action is a precipitating cause of war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Gains, Causes

• The principle of compulsory service, embodied in the system of conscription, lias been the means by which modem dictators and military gangs have shackled their people after a coup d'état, and bound them to their own aggressive purposes. In view of the great service that conscription has rendered to tyranny and war, it is fundamentally shortsighted for any liberty-loving and peace-desiring peoples to maintain it as an imagined safeguard, lest they become the victims of the monster they have helped to preserve.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Mean

• If you wish for peace, understand war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Peace, War, Wish

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