Occupation: Military Historian Birth: July 1, 1780 Death: November 16, 1831
Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice..
A general in time of war is constantly bombarded by reports both true and false; by errors arising from fear or negligence or hastiness; by disobedie….
This tremendous friction which cannot, as in mechanics, be reduced to a few points, is everywhere in contact with chance, and brings about effects th….
No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and h….
There are very few men-and they are the exceptions-who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment.
War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter..
Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions and its own peculiar preconceptions..
It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past..
Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment..
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating..
No other human activity is so continuously or universally bound up with chance. And through the element of chance, guesswork and luck come to play a ….
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….
Criticism exists only to recognize the truth, not to act as judge..
There are times when the utmost daring is the height of wisdom..
In War more than anywhere else in the world things happen differently to what we had expected, and look differently when near, to what they did at a ….
What do we mean by the defeat of the enemy? Simply the destruction of his forces, whether by death, injury, or any other means-either completely or e….
Of all the passions that inspire a man in a battle, none, we have to admit, is so powerful and so constant as the longing for honor and reknown..
Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind..
There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom..
With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater ….