If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.

In short, absolute, so-called mathematical, factors never find a firm basis in military calculations. From the very start, there is an interplay of possibilities, probabilities, good luck and bad, that weaves its way throughout the length and breadth of the tapestry. In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.

War is politics by other means.

There are very few men-and they are the exceptions-who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment

This tremendous friction which cannot, as in mechanics, be reduced to a few points, is everywhere in contact with chance, and brings about effects that cannot be measured just because they are largely due to chance.

War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost bounds.

...as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.