The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.
War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.
Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.
Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.
There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom.
If we read history with an open mind, we cannot fail to conclude that, among all the military virtues, the energetic conduct of war has always contributed most to glory and success.
In war, more than anywhere else in the world, things happen differently from what we had expected, and look differently when near from what they did at a distance.
In war, while everything is simple, even the simplest thing is difficult. Difficulties accumulate and produce frictions which no one can comprehend who has not seen war.
Only great and general battles can produce great results.
The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.
War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.
A conqueror is always a lover of peace.
Men are always more inclined to pitch their estimate of the enemy’s strength too high than too low, such is human nature.
To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy’s power to frustrate it.
War should never be thought of as something autonomous, but always as an instrument of policy.
Action in war is like movement in a resistant element. Just as the simplest and most natural of movements, walking, cannot easily be performed in water, so in war, it is difficult for normal efforts to achieve even moderate results.
War is politics by other means.
I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.
Desperate affairs require desperate remedies.
Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations; this serves more or less as a substitute for hatred between individuals.