The blurring of the line between policy and strategy] encouraged soldiers to make the preposterous claim that policy should be subservient to their conduct of operations, and (especially in democratic countries) it drew the statesman on to overstep the definite border of his sphere and interfere with his military employees in the actual use of their tools.
B. H. Liddell HartDirect pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent.
B. H. Liddell HartThe practical value of history is to throw the film of the past through the material projector of the present on to the screen of the future.
B. H. Liddell HartEvery 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.
B. H. Liddell HartDirect 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.
B. H. Liddell Hart