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

If the enemy is to be coerced, you must put him in a situation that is even more unpleasant than the sacrifice you call on him to make. The hardships of the situation must not be merely transient - at least not in appearance. Otherwise, the enemy would not give in, but would wait for things to improve.

What we should admire is the acute fulfillment of the unspoken assumptions, the smooth harmony of the whole activity, which only become evident in the final success.

All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.

By 'intelligence' we mean every sort of information about the enemy and his country - the basis, in short, of our own plans and operations.

War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.