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 Copy Share Image
If we do not learn to regard a war, and the separate campaigns of which it is composed, as a chain of… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Any complex activity, if it is to be carried on with any degree of virtuosity, calls for appropriate gifts of intellect and… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
It is paltry philosophy if in the old-fashioned way one lays down rules and principles in total disregard of moral values .… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
Just as some plants bear fruit only if they don't shoot up too high, so in practical arts the leaves and flowers… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The object of defense is preservation; and since it is easier to hold ground than to take it, defense is easier than… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
We must, therefore, be confident that the general measures we have adopted will produce the results we expect. most important in this… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
If the enemy is to be coerced, you must put him in a situation that is even more unpleasant than the sacrifice… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
If you entrench yourself behind strong fortifications, you compel the enemy seek a solution elsewhere. — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
In War, the young soldier is very apt to regard unusual fatigues as the consquence of faults, mistakes, and embarrassment in the… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
The invention of gunpowder and the constant improvement of firearms are enough in themselves to show that the advance of civilization has done nothing… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
Rather than comparing [war] to art we could more accurately compare it to commerce, which is also a conflict of human interests and activities;… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
After we have thought out everything carefully in advance and have sought and found without prejudice the most plausible plan, we must not be… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
Intelligence alone is not courage, we often see that the most intelligent people are irresolute. Since in the rush of events a man is… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
The great uncertainty of all data in war is because all action, to a certain extent, planned in a mere twilight - like the… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
Self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment. — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
War is the realm of uncertainty; three-quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image