Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.

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

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

Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds; it is a fallacy that must be exposed: War is such a dangerous business that the mistakes which come from kindness are the very worst.

Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.

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.

War is an act of force, and to the application of that force there is no limit. Each of the adversaries forces the hand of the other, and a reciprocal action results which in theory can have no limit.