B. H. Liddell Hart Quotes

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• The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Ideas, Mind

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• In war, the chief incalculable is the human will.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Marine Corps

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• The theory of the indirect approach operates on the line of least expectation.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Expectations, Lines, Indirect

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• If you want peace, understand war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Want, Ifs

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• The downfall of civilized states tends to come not from the direct assaults of foes, but from internal decay combined with the consequences of exhaustion in war.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Decay

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• In strategy the longest way round is often the shortest way there- a direct approach to the object exhausts the attacker and hardens the resistance by compression, whereas an indirect approach loosens the defender's hold by upsetting his balance.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Power, History

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• The most dangerous error is failure to recognize our own tendency to error.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Errors, Tendencies, Dangerous

  B.H. Liddell Hart (2015). “Why Don't We Learn from History?”, p.24, Lulu Press, Inc

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• In the case of a state that is seeking not conquest but the maintenance of its security, the aim is fulfilled if the threat is removed - if the enemy is led to abandon his purpose.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Enemy, Purpose

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• 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 Hart

  Military, Moving, Effort

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• ...regrettable as it may seem to the idealist, the experience of history provides little warrant for the belief that real progress, and the freedom that makes progress possible, lies in unification. For where unification has been able to establish unity of ideas it has usually ended in uniformity, paralysing the growth of new ideas. And where the unification has merely brought about an artificial or imposed unity, its irksomeness has led through discord to disruption.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Real, Lying, Ideas

  B.H. Liddell Hart (2015). “Why Don't We Learn from History?”, p.76, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Ensure that both plan and dispositions are flexible, adaptable to circumstances. Your plan should foresee and provide for a next step in case of success or failure.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Thinking, Next Steps, Should

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• 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 Hart

  War, Air, Soldier

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• The profoundest truth of war is that the issue of battle is usually decided in the minds of the opposing commanders, not in the bodies of their men.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Truth, War, Power

  B. H. Liddell Hart (2009). “Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American”, p.10, Da Capo Press

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• A complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Bars, Satisfaction, Pursuit

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• 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 Hart

  Military, Eye, School

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• In war the chief incalculable is the human will, which manifests itself in resistance, which in turn lies in the province of tactics. Strategy has not to overcome resistance, except from nature. Its purpose is to diminish the possibility of resistance, and it seeks to fulfil this purpose by exploiting the elements of movement and surprise.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Lying

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• For whoever habitually suppresses the truth in the interests of tact will produce a deformity from the womb of his thought.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Deformity, Produce

  B.H. Liddell Hart (2015). “Why Don't We Learn from History?”, p.62, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The most consistently successful commanders, when faced by an enemy in a position that was strong naturally or materially, have hardly ever tackled it in a direct way. And when, under pressure of circumstances, they have risked a direct attack, the result has commonly been to blot their record with a failure.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Strong, Military, Successful

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• Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of resistance can be diminished- by giving thought not only to the aim but to the method of approach. Avoid a frontal attack on a long established position; instead, seek to turn it by flank movement, so that a more penetrable side is exposed to the thrust of truth. But, in any such indirect approach, take care not to diverge from the truth- for nothing is more fatal to its real advancement than to lapse into untruth.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Real, Ideas, Giving

  B.H. Liddell Hart (2015). “Why Don't We Learn from History?”, p.63, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Inflict the least possible permanent injury, for the enemy of to-day is the customer of the morrow and the ally of the future

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Enemy, Allies

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• In any problem where an opposing force exists and cannot be regulated, one must foresee and provide for alternative courses. Adaptability is the law which governs survival in war as in life ... To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it; the best chance of overcoming such obstruction is to have a plan that can be easily varied to fit the circumstances met.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, War, Law

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• If we clear the air of the fog of catchwords which surround the conduct of war, and grasp that in the human will lies the source and mainspring of all conflict, as of all other activities of man's life, it becomes clear that our object in war can only be attained by the subjugation of the opposing will. All acts, such as defeat in the field, propaganda, blockade, diplomacy, or attack on the centres of government and population, are seen to be but means to that end.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Lying, Mean

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• With growing experience, all skillful commanders sought to profit by the power of the defensive, even when on the offensive.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Growing, Offensive

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• No man can exactly calculate the capacity of human genius and stupidity, nor the incapacity of will.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Military, Men, Stupidity

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• Guerrilla war is a kind of war waged by the few but dependent on the support of many.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  War, Support, Kind

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