Where absolute superiority is not attainable, you must produce a relative one at the decisive point by making skillful use ofwhat you have.

In war, where imperfect intelligence, the threat of a catastrophe, and the number of accidents are incomparably greater than any other human endeavor, the amount of missed opportunities, so to speak, is therefore bound to be greater.

Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.

The more a leader is in the habit of demanding from his men, the surer he will be that his demands will be answered.

The Conqueror is always a lover of peace: he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.

The general unreliability of all information presents a special problem in war: all action takes place, so to speak, in the twilight, which, like fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are. Whatever is hidden from full view in this feeble light has to be guessed at by talent, or simply left to chance. So once again for the lack of objective knowledge, one has to trust to talent or to luck.

No other human activity is so continuously or universally bound up with chance. And through the element of chance, guesswork and luck come to play a great part in war.