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

The object of defense is preservation; and since it is easier to hold ground than to take it, defense is easier than attack. But defense has a passive purpose: preservation; and attack a positive one: conquest.... If defense is the stronger form of war, yet has a negative object, it follows that it should be used only so long as weakness compels, and be abandoned as soon as we are strong enough to pursue a positive object.

Knowledge in war is very simple, being concerned with so few subjects, and only with their final results at that. But this does not make its application easy.

It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.

Politics is the womb in which war develops - where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of living creatures in their embryos.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.