Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation form their purposes.

What do we mean by the defeat of the enemy? Simply the destruction of his forces, whether by death, injury, or any other means-either completely or enough to make him stop fighting. . . . The complete or partial destruction of the enemy must be regarded as the sole object of all engagements. . . . Direct annihilation of the enemy's forces must always be the dominant consideration.

No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.

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.

Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.

War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.