Carl von Clausewitz

There is only one decisive victory: the last.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Blood is the price of victory

— Carl von Clausewitz

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

— Carl von Clausewitz

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Desperate affairs require desperate remedies.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is the province of danger.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Boldness becomes rarer, the higher the rank.

— Carl von Clausewitz

The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Only great and general battles can produce great results

— Carl von Clausewitz

In war everything is simple, but it's the simple things that are difficult.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Where absolute superiority is not attainable, you must produce a relative one at the decisive point by making skillful use ofwhat you…

— Carl von Clausewitz

There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war.

— Carl von Clausewitz

No other human activity is so continuously or universally bound up with chance. And through the element of chance, guesswork and luck…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end.

— Carl von Clausewitz

...as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the…

— Carl von Clausewitz

War is the province of chance. In no sphere of human activity is such a margin to be left for this intruder.…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Where execution is dominant, as it is in the individual events of a war whether great or small, then intellectual factors are…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Friction is the only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper.

— Carl von Clausewitz

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

“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

Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed, and…

— Carl von Clausewitz

“The commander's talents are given greatest scope in rough hilly country. Mountains allow him too little real command over his scattered units…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads…

— Carl von Clausewitz

What do we mean by the defeat of the enemy? Simply the destruction of his forces, whether by death, injury, or any…

— 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

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

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

The first and most important rule to observe...is to use our entire forces with the utmost energy. The second rule is to…

— 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

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

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

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

But the main point is that soldiers, after fighting for some time, are apt to be like burned-out cinders. They have shot…

— 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