It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.
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.
There are very few men-and they are the exceptions-who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment
Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment.
Self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment.
The object of defense is preservation; and since it is easier to hold ground than to take it, defense is easier than attack. But defense has a passive purpose: preservation; and attack a positive one: conquest.... If defense is the stronger form of war, yet has a negative object, it follows that it should be used only so long as weakness compels, and be abandoned as soon as we are strong enough to pursue a positive object.
The Conqueror is always a lover of peace: he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.
Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.
Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.
Where absolute superiority is not attainable, you must produce a relative one at the decisive point by making skillful use ofwhat you have.
Desperate affairs require desperate remedies.
In short, absolute, so-called mathematical, factors never find a firm basis in military calculations. From the very start, there is an interplay of possibilities, probabilities, good luck and bad, that weaves its way throughout the length and breadth of the tapestry. In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.
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.
Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.
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 or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are. Whatever is hidden from full view in this feeble light has to be guessed at by talent, or simply left to chance. So once again for the lack of objective knowledge, one has to trust to talent or to luck.
The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.
The side that feels the lesser urge for peace will naturally get the better bargain.
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
The only situation a commander can know fully is his own: his opponent's he can know only from unreliable intelligence.
War is politics by other means.
Politics is the womb in which war develops.
Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.
There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom.
Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them.
To discover how much of our resources must be mobilized for war, we must first examine our political aim and that of the enemy. We must gauge the strength and situation of the opposite state. We must gauge the character and abilities of its government and people and do the same in regard to our own. Finally, we must evaluate the political sympathies of other states and the effect the war may have on them.
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