The best form of defense is attack.

The difficulty of accurate recognition constitutes one of the most serious sources of friction in war, by making things appear entirely different from what one had expected.

Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.

The only situation a commander can know fully is his own: his opponent's he can know only from unreliable intelligence.

A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy.

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.

War is only caused through the political intercourse of governments and nations - war is nothing but a continuation of political intercourse with an admixture of other means.