Carl von Clausewitz

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.

— Carl von Clausewitz

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

— Carl von Clausewitz

Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.

— Carl von Clausewitz

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

— Carl von Clausewitz

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

— Carl von Clausewitz

The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Only great and general battles can produce great results

— Carl von Clausewitz

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

— Carl von Clausewitz

Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations; this serves more or less as a substitute for hatred between individuals.

— Carl von Clausewitz

“For political and social as well as for military reasons the preferred way of bringing about victory was the shortest, most direct…

— 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

The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy's forces, is the first-born son of war.

— Carl von Clausewitz

The only situation a commander can know fully is his own: his opponent's he can know only from unreliable intelligence.

— Carl von Clausewitz

“The aggressor is always peace-loving (as Bonaparte always claimed to be); he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.”

— 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

“casualty reports on either side are never accurate, seldom truthful, and in most cases deliberately falsified.”

— Carl von Clausewitz

To discover how much of our resources must be mobilized for war, we must first examine our political aim and that 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

“Pity the theory which sets itself in opposition to the mind! It cannot repair this contradiction by any humility, and the humbler…

— 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

Obstinacy is a fault of temperament. Stubbornness and intolerance of contradiction result from a special kind of egotism, which elevates above everything…

— 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

As each man's strength gives out, as it no longer responds to his will, the inertia of the whole gradually comes to…

— Carl von Clausewitz

The majority of people are timid by nature, and that is why they constantly exaggerate danger. all influences on the military leader,…

— Carl von Clausewitz

The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.

— Carl von Clausewitz

Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to…

— Carl von Clausewitz

With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are,…

— Carl von Clausewitz

It should be noted that the seeds of wisdom that are to bear fruit in the intellect are sown less by critical…

— Carl von Clausewitz

Men are always more inclined to pitch their estimate of the enemy's strength too high than too low, such is human nature.

— 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

By 'intelligence' we mean every sort of information about the enemy and his country - the basis, in short, of our own…

— 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

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

A general who allows himself to be decisively defeated in an extended mountain position deserves to be court-martialled.

— Carl von Clausewitz

“If we have made appropriate preparations, taking into account all possible misfortunes, so that we shall not be lost immediately if they…

— Carl von Clausewitz

If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will…

— 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

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