The only situation a commander can know fully is his own: his opponent’s he can know only from unreliable intelligence.
Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
Boldness will be at a disadvantage only in an encounter with deliberate caution, which may be considered bold in its own right, and is certainly just as powerful and effective; but such cases are rare.
Blood is the price of victory.
War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost limits.
The more a leader is in the habit of demanding from his men, the surer he will be that his demands will be answered.
The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.
The world has a way of undermining complex plans. This is particularly true in fast moving environments. A fast moving environment can evolve more quickly than a complex plan can be adapted to it. By the time you have adapted, the target has changed.
The majority of people are timid by nature, and that is why they constantly exaggerate danger. all influences on the military leader, therefore, combine to give him a false impression of his opponent’s strength, and from this arises a new source of indecision.
War is the province of chance. in no other sphere of human activity must such a margin be left for this intruder. it increases the uncertainty of every circumstance and deranges the course of events.
War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others.
In war the will is directed at an animate object that reacts.
There is only one decisive victory: the last.
A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy.
Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination. The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy’s forces, is the first-born son of war. Only great and general battles can produce great results. Blood is the price of victory.
The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.
All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.
Politics is the womb in which war develops.
All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.
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.