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 ….

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 ….

Where execution is dominant, as it is in the individual events of a war whether great or small, then intellectual factors are reduced to a minimum..

The best form of defense is attack..

Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end..

Politics is the womb in which war develops - where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of living cr….

Friction is the only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper..

The invention of gunpowder and the constant improvement of firearms are enough in themselves to show that the advance of civilization has done nothin….

If you entrench yourself behind strong fortifications, you compel the enemy seek a solution elsewhere..

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 obstacle….

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.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity..

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for he….

All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it..

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain..

There is only one decisive victory: the last..

Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult..

A general who allows himself to be decisively defeated in an extended mountain position deserves to be court-martialled..

A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy..

The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy..