Direct pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent.

While hitting one must guard ... In order to hit with effect, the enemy must be taken off his guard.

A modern state is such a complex and interdependent fabric that it offers a target highly sensitive to a sudden and overwhelming blow from the air.

As has happened so often in history, victory had bred a complacency and fostered an orthodoxy which led to defeat in the next war.

A complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.

Direct experience is inherently too limited to form an adequate foundation either for theory or for application. At the best it produces an atmosphere that is of value in drying and hardening the structure of thought. The greater value of indirect experience lies in its greater variety and extent. History is universal experience, the experience not of another, but of many others under manifold conditions.

Every action is seen to fall into one of three main categories, guarding, hitting, or moving. Here, then, are the elements of combat, whether in war or pugilism.