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 HartRead
The hydrogen bomb is not the answer to the Western peoples' dream of full and final insurance of their security ... While it has increased their striking power it has sharpened their anxiety and deepened their sense of insecurity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The hydrogen bomb may enhance military power, but it simultaneously intensifies fear and insecurity among people.
B. H. Liddell Hart's quote reflects on the paradox of modern military advancements, specifically the hydrogen bomb, which was intended to provide security for Western peoples. Instead of achieving lasting peace and assurance, such weapons have escalated tensions and anxieties, highlighting the inherent risks and moral dilemmas of relying on such destructive capabilities for safety.
Themes
Hydrogen BombSecurityAnxietyMilitary PowerInsecurityPeace
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about the morality of nuclear weapons.
More from B. H. Liddell Hart
All quotes →In should be the duty of every soldier to reflect on the experiences of the past, in the endeavor to discover improvements, in his particular sphere of action, which are practicable in the immediate future.
B. H. Liddell HartRead
The easiest and quickest path into the esteem of traditional military authorities is by the appeal to the eye, rather than to the mind. The `polish and pipeclay' school is not yet extinct, and it is easier for the mediocre intelligence to become an authority on buttons, than on tactics.
B. H. Liddell HartRead
The practical value of history is to throw the film of the past through the material projector of the present on to the screen of the future.
B. H. Liddell HartRead
The chief incalculable in war is the human will.
B. H. Liddell HartRead
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 HartRead
Similar quotes
Suffering is a byproduct of evolution by natural selection, an inevitable consequence that may worry us in our more sympathetic moments but cannot be expected to worry a tiger - even if a tiger can be said to worry about anything at all - and certainly cannot be expected to worry its genes.
Richard DawkinsRead
Catastrophes come when some dominant institution, swollen like a soap-bubble and still standing without foundations, suddenly crumbles at the touch of what may seem a word or idea, but is really some stronger material source.
George SantayanaRead
If Lacan presumes that female homosexuality issues from a disappointed heterosexuality, as observation is said to show, could it not be equally clear to the observer that heterosexuality issues from a disappointed homosexuality?
Judith ButlerRead
If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.
Winston ChurchillRead
I wanted to explore the values that are at work, underpinning my life.
Sidney PoitierRead
And thus I clothe my naked villainy With odd old ends stol'n out of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
William ShakespeareRead