Quotes on Total War

To capture the enemy's entire army is better than to destroy it; to take intact a regiment, a company, or a squad is better than to destroy them. For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the supreme of excellence. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence.

As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.

In war, indeed, there can be no substitute for victory.

Every post is honourable in which a man can serve his country.

To place any dependence upon militia, is, assuredly, resting upon a broken staff.

To a people warlike and indigent, an incursion into a rich country is never hurtful.

Close combat, man to man, is plainly to be regarded as the real basis of combat.

Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and respect of self, in turn, is the chief element in courage.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

A bad peace is even worse than war.

I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.

The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.

Even the bravest cannot fight beyond his power

War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose. Does it not have material and spiritual evil as its consequences which far exceed whatever good might result? When will our moralists give us an answer to this question?

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.

Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.