[The] aim is not so much to seek battle as to seek a strategic situation so advantageous that if it does not of itself produce the decision, its continuation by a battle is sure to achieve this. In other words, dislocation is the aim of strategy.

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

The higher level of grand strategy [is] that of conducting war with a far-sighted regard to the state of the peace that will follow.

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.

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

It is only to clear from history that states rarely keep faith with each other, save in so far (and so long) as their promises seem to them to combine with their interests.

If you want peace, understand war.