Von Clausewitz Quotes
Collection of top 94 famous quotes about Von Clausewitz
Von Clausewitz Quotes & Sayings
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All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
If you entrench yourself behind strong fortifications, you compel the enemy seek a solution elsewhere.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is the province of danger and therefore courage above all things is the first quality of a warrior, von Clausewitz maintained.
— Joe Haldeman
There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy's forces, is the first-born son of war.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Boldness becomes rarer, the higher the rank.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The best strategy is always to be very strong.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War should never be thought of as something autonomous, but always as an instrument of policy.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
In war more than anywhere else, things do not turn out as we expect.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Where absolute superiority is not attainable, you must produce a relative one at the decisive point by making skillful use ofwhat you have.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Only great and general battles can produce great results
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost limits.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
To secure peace is to prepare for war.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
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.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Knowledge must become capability.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
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.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The art of war in its highest point of view is policy.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
By 'intelligence' we mean every sort of information about the enemy and his country - the basis, in short, of our own plans and operations.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is ... a trinity of violence, chance, and reason.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
To achieve victory we must mass our forces at the hub of all power and movement. The enemy's center of gravity
— Carl Von Clausewitz
There are very few men-and they are the exceptions-who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
A conqueror is always a lover of peace.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
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.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
[ ... ] to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions and its own peculiar preconceptions.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
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.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The only situation a commander can know fully is his own: his opponent's he can know only from unreliable intelligence.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
In war everything is simple, but it's the simple things that are difficult.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is politics by other means.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Criticism exists only to recognize the truth, not to act as judge.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
There is only one decisive victory: the last.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The more a leader is in the habit of demanding from his men, the surer he will be that his demands will be answered.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Close combat, man to man, is plainly to be regarded as the real basis of combat.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Beauty cannot be defined by abscissas and ordinates; neither are circles and ellipses created by their geometrical formulas.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
A general who allows himself to be decisively defeated in an extended mountain position deserves to be court-martialled.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The very nature of interactions is bound to make it unpredictable.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
As man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
...in war, the advantages and disadvantages of a single action could only be determined by the final balance.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is the province of danger.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is merely a continuation of politics,
— Carl Von Clausewitz
In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The side that feels the lesser urge for peace will naturally get the better bargain.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Everything in strategy is very simple, but that does not mean everything is very easy.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Men are always more inclined to pitch their estimate of the enemy's strength too high than too low, such is human nature.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
In war the will is directed at an animate object that reacts.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
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.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
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.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
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.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Politics is the womb in which war develops.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations; this serves more or less as a substitute for hatred between individuals.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
There are times when the utmost daring is the height of wisdom.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Strategy can therefore never take its hand from the work for a moment.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is merely the continuation of politics by other means
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Friction is the only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper ...
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Whoever does great things with small means has successfully reached the goal.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
History had no lessons or rules to offer the student, it could only broaden his understanding and strengthen his critical judgment.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
... a strong character is one that will not be unbalanced by the most powerful emotions
— Carl Von Clausewitz
There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult
— Carl Von Clausewitz
The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
Theory must also take into account the human element; it must accord a place to courage, to boldness, even to rashness.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.
— Carl Von Clausewitz
War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.
— Carl Von Clausewitz