Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war. ... Countless minor incidents - the kind you can never really foresee - combine to lower the general level of performance, so that one always falls short of the intended goal.

Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.

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

War should never be thought of as something autonomous, but always as an instrument of policy.

Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment.

Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity

The more physical the activity, the less the difficulties will be. The more the activity becomes intellectual and turns into motives which exercise a determining influence on the commander's will, the more the difficulties will increase.