The best strategy is always to be very strong.

Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions and its own peculiar preconceptions.

In war more than anywhere else, things do not turn out as we expect.

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.

In war the will is directed at an animate object that reacts.

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

Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them.