War must be made as intense and awful as possible in order to make it short, and thus to diminish its horrors.
The art of war is to gain time when your strength is inferior.
Let the path be open to talent.
Generals who save troops for the next day are always beaten.
Great battles are won with artillery.
I have destroyed the enemy merely by marches.
My generals are a parcel of post inspectors.
A Constitution should be short and obscure.
The English have no exaulted sentiments. They can all be bought.
It would be a joke if the conduct of the victor had to be justified to the vanquished.
In war, as in politics, no evil – even if it is permissible under the rules – is excusable unless it is absolutely necessary. Everything beyond that is a crime.
If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.
There are in Europe many good generals, but they see too many things at once. I see one thing, namely the enemy’s main body. I try to crush it, confident that secondary matters will then settle themselves.
It should not be believed that a march of three or four days in the wrong direction can be corrected by a countermarch. As a rule, this is to make two mistakes instead of one.
In war, moral factors acount for three quarters of the whole; relative material strength accounts for only one quarter.
The basic principle that we must follow in directing the armies of the Republic is this: that they must feed themselves on war at the expense of the enemy territory.
Sometimes a single battle decides everything and sometimes, too, the slightest circumstance decides the issue of a battle. There is a moment in every battle at which the least manoeuvre is decisive and gives superiority, as one drop of water causes overflow.
You do not get peace by shouting: Peace. Peace is a meaningless word; what we need is a glorious peace.
An Emperor confides in national soldiers, not in mercenaries.
With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.