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The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.
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.
Politics is the womb in which war develops.
All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.
Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.
War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.
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.
It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.
Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.
Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.
Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.
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 distance.
If the enemy is to be coerced, you must put him in a situation that is even more unpleasant than the sacrifice you call on him to make. The hardships of the situation must not be merely transient - at least not in appearance. Otherwise, the enemy would not give in, but would wait for things to improve.
War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end.
Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination. The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy's forces, is the first-born son of war. Only great and general battles can produce great results. Blood is the price of victory.
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.
There is only one decisive victory: the last.
War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others.
A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy.
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