War Quotes by Carl von Clausewitz

War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost limits.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Only great and general battles can produce great results

— Carl von Clausewitz

The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.

— Carl von Clausewitz

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is...a trinity of violence, chance, and reason.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is politics by other means.

— Carl von Clausewitz

All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.

— Carl von Clausewitz

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

— Carl von Clausewitz

Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.

— Carl von Clausewitz

[...] to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity

— Carl von Clausewitz

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

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.

— Carl von Clausewitz

In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.

— Carl von Clausewitz

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Every combat is the bloody and destructive measuring of the strength of forces, physical and moral; whoever at the close has the…

— Carl von Clausewitz

We shall not enter into any of the abstruse definitions of war used by publicists. We shall keep to the element of…

— Carl von Clausewitz

In War more than anywhere else in the world things happen differently to what we had expected, and look differently when near,…

— Carl von Clausewitz

No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what…

— Carl von Clausewitz

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

— Carl von Clausewitz

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation…

— Carl von Clausewitz

In war, while everything is simple, even the simplest thing is difficult. Difficulties accumulate and produce frictions which no one can comprehend…

— Carl von Clausewitz

We must evaluate the political sympathies of other states and the effect war may have on them. To assess these things in…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination. The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Rather than comparing [war] to art we could more accurately compare it to commerce, which is also a conflict of human interests…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Surprise becomes effective when we suddenly face the enemy at one point with far more troops than he expected. This type of…

— Carl von Clausewitz

The general unreliability of all information presents a special problem in war: all action takes place, so to speak, in the twilight,…

— Carl von Clausewitz

In short, absolute, so-called mathematical, factors never find a firm basis in military calculations. From the very start, there is an interplay…

— Carl von Clausewitz

“The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish by…

— Carl von Clausewitz

If we consider the actual basis of this information [i.e., intelligence], how unreliable and transient it is, we soon realize that war…

— Carl von Clausewitz

“Essentally combat is an expression of hostile feelings. But in the large-scale combat that we call war hostile feelings often have become…

— Carl von Clausewitz

“We propose to consider first the single elements of our subject, then each branch of part, and, last of all, the whole…

— Carl Von Clausewitz

After we have thought out everything carefully in advance and have sought and found without prejudice the most plausible plan, we must…

— Carl von Clausewitz

A general in time of war is constantly bombarded by reports both true and false; by errors arising from fear or negligence…

— Carl von Clausewitz

However much pains may be taken to combine the soldier and the citizen in one and the same individual, whatever may be…

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost bounds.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is merely a continuation of politics,

— Carl von Clausewitz