Carl Von Clausewitz Quotes
War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.
Tactics is the art of using troops in battle; strategy is the art of using battles to win the war
To achieve victory we must mass our forces at the hub of all power & movement. The enemy's 'Center of Gravity'
It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.
Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end.
The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish ... the kind of war on which they are embarking.
Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment.
War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.
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.
If you entrench yourself behind strong fortifications, you compel the enemy seek a solution elsewhere.
Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.
Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
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.
There are very few men-and they are the exceptions-who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment
Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions and its own peculiar preconceptions.
The Conqueror is always a lover of peace: he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.
Where absolute superiority is not attainable, you must produce a relative one at the decisive point by making skillful use ofwhat you have.
There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war.
By 'intelligence' we mean every sort of information about the enemy and his country - the basis, in short, of our own plans and operations.
Der Krieg ist nichts als eine Fortsetzung des politischen Verkehrs mit Einmischung anderer Mittel. War is merely the continuation of policy with the admixture of other means.
The more a leader is in the habit of demanding from his men, the surer he will be that his demands will be answered.
Close combat, man to man, is plainly to be regarded as the real basis of combat.
To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it.
The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy's forces, is the first-born son of war.
Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them.
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.
Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.
War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.
