Carl von Clausewitz Quotes
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Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.
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With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater the margin that can be left for accidents.
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...any move made in a state of tension will be of more important, and will have more results, than it would have made in a state of eqilibrium. In times of maximum tension this importance will rise to an infinite degree.
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Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.
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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.
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...the side that feels the lesser urge for peace will naturally get the better bargain.
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The commander's talents are given greatest scope in rough hilly country. Mountains allow him too little real command over his scattered units and he is unable to control them all; in open country, control is a simple matter and does not test his ability to the fullest.
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All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.
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Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.
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The state of crisis is the real war; the equilibrium is nothing but its reflex.
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Beauty cannot be defined by abscissas and ordinates; neither are circles and ellipses created by their geometrical formulas.
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...an intellectual instinct which extracts the essence from the phenomena of life, as a bee sucks honey from a flower. In addition to study and reflections, life itself serves as a source.
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The more physical the activity, the less the difficulties will be. The more the activity becomes intellectual and turns into motives which exercise a determining influence on the commander's will, the more the difficulties will increase.
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Any complex activity, if it is to be carried on with any degree of virtuosity, calls for appropriate gifts of intellect and temperament. If they are outstanding and reveal themselves in exceptional achievements, their possessor is called a 'genius'.
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Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations; this serves more or less as a substitute for hatred between individuals.
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Our discussion has shown that while in war many different roads can lead to the goal, to the attainment of the political object, fighting is the only possible means.
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...self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment.
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What we should admire is the acute fulfillment of the unspoken assumptions, the smooth harmony of the whole activity, which only become evident in the final success.
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Knowledge must be so absorbed into the mind that it ceases to exist in a separate, objective way.'
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...in war, the advantages and disadvantages of a single action could only be determined by the final balance.