Whenever armed forces . . . are used, the idea of combat must be present. . . . The end for which… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.” — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The deduction of effect from cause is often blocked by some insuperable extrinsic obstacle: the true causes may be quite unknown. Nowhere… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
“Von der Goltz in excuse for the action of the late President Kruger in 1899: "The Statesman who, knowing his instrument to… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult. — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
The difficulty of accurate recognition constitutes one of the most serious sources of friction in war, by making things appear entirely different… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others. — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war. — 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
Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance. — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
“(1) War becomes a completely isolated act, which arises suddenly, and is in no way connected with the previous history of the… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
Action in war is like movement in a resistant element. Just as the simplest and most natural of movements, walking, cannot easily… — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
Friction is the only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper. — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions and its own peculiar preconceptions. — Carl von Clausewitz Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
In war everything is simple, but it's the simple things that are difficult. — 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
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