Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end.

The invention of gunpowder and the constant improvement of firearms are enough in themselves to show that the advance of civilization has done nothing practical to alter or deflect the impulse to destroy the enemy, which is central to the very idea of war.

Action in war is like movement in a resistant element. Just as the simplest and most natural of movements, walking, cannot easily be performed in water, so in war, it is difficult for normal efforts to achieve even moderate results.

Everything in strategy is very simple, but that does not mean everything is very easy.

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

Whenever armed forces . . . are used, the idea of combat must be present. . . . The end for which a soldier is recruited, clothed, armed, and trained, the whole object of his sleeping, eating, drinking, and marching is simply that he should fight at the right place and the right time.

Criticism exists only to recognize the truth, not to act as judge.