Loss of hope rather than loss of life is what decides the issues of war. But helplessness induces hopelessness.

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

Natural hazards, however formidable, are inherently less dangerous and less uncertain than fighting hazards. All conditions are more calculable, all obstacles more surmountable than those of human resistance.

It is thus more potent, as well as more economical, to disarm the enemy than to attempt his destruction by hard fighting ... A strategist should think in terms of paralysing, not of killing.

The more usual reason for adopting a strategy of limited aim is that of awaiting a change in the balance of force ... The essential condition of such a strategy is that the drain on him should be disproportionately greater than on oneself.

No man can exactly calculate the capacity of human genius and stupidity, nor the incapacity of will.

With growing experience, all skillful commanders sought to profit by the power of the defensive, even when on the offensive.