The deduction of effect from cause is often blocked by some insuperable extrinsic obstacle: the true causes may be quite unknown. Nowhere in life is this so common as in war, where the facts are seldom fully known and the… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
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. — 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