Carl Von Clausewitz quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Carl Von Clausewitz

Carl Von Clausewitz Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Carl Von Clausewitz on Wise Famous Quotes.

All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.

If you entrench yourself behind strong fortifications, you compel the enemy seek a solution elsewhere.

There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war.

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.

Boldness becomes rarer, the higher the rank.

The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.

Only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.

The best strategy is always to be very strong.

The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.

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 should never be thought of as something autonomous, but always as an instrument of policy.

Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.

In war more than anywhere else, things do not turn out as we expect.

To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it.

Where absolute superiority is not attainable, you must produce a relative one at the decisive point by making skillful use ofwhat you have.

Only great and general battles can produce great results

War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost limits.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

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.

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.

Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.

War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.

Knowledge must become capability.

A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy.

War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means.

As long as the enemy is not defeated, he may defeat me; then I shall be no longer my own master; he will dictate the law to me as I did to him.

The art of war in its highest point of view is policy.

By 'intelligence' we mean every sort of information about the enemy and his country - the basis, in short, of our own plans and operations.

War is ... a trinity of violence, chance, and reason.

To achieve victory we must mass our forces at the hub of all power and movement. The enemy's center of gravity

The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.

There are very few men-and they are the exceptions-who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment

Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end.

A conqueror is always a lover of peace.

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.

[ ... ] to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity

Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions and its own peculiar preconceptions.

Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

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.

Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.

The only situation a commander can know fully is his own: his opponent's he can know only from unreliable intelligence.

In war everything is simple, but it's the simple things that are difficult.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.

War is politics by other means.

Criticism exists only to recognize the truth, not to act as judge.

There is only one decisive victory: the last.

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.

Beauty cannot be defined by abscissas and ordinates; neither are circles and ellipses created by their geometrical formulas.

A general who allows himself to be decisively defeated in an extended mountain position deserves to be court-martialled.

The very nature of interactions is bound to make it unpredictable.

Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.

As man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.

...in war, the advantages and disadvantages of a single action could only be determined by the final balance.

War is the province of danger.

War is merely a continuation of politics,

In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.

The side that feels the lesser urge for peace will naturally get the better bargain.

Everything in strategy is very simple, but that does not mean everything is very easy.

Men are always more inclined to pitch their estimate of the enemy's strength too high than too low, such is human nature.

In war the will is directed at an animate object that reacts.

War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.

Of all the passions that inspire a man in a battle, none, we have to admit, is so powerful and so constant as the longing for honor and reknown.

Where execution is dominant, as it is in the individual events of a war whether great or small, then intellectual factors are reduced to a minimum.

Self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment.

The Statesman who, knowing his instrument to be ready, and seeing War inevitable, hesitates to strike first is guilty of a crime against his country.

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.

Politics is the womb in which war develops.

Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations; this serves more or less as a substitute for hatred between individuals.

There are times when the utmost daring is the height of wisdom.

Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment.

Strategy can therefore never take its hand from the work for a moment.

War is merely the continuation of politics by other means

War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.

Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity

Friction is the only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper ...

Whoever does great things with small means has successfully reached the goal.

History had no lessons or rules to offer the student, it could only broaden his understanding and strengthen his critical judgment.

... a strong character is one that will not be unbalanced by the most powerful emotions

There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom.

War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others.

The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.

Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult

The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.

Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.

Theory must also take into account the human element; it must accord a place to courage, to boldness, even to rashness.

War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.

War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.

It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.