Only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.

But the main point is that soldiers, after fighting for some time, are apt to be like burned-out cinders. They have shot off their ammunition, their numbers have been diminished, their strength and their morale are drained, and possibly their courage has vanished as well. As an organic whole, quite apart from their loss in numbers, they are far from being what they were before the action; and thus the amount of reserves spent is an accurate measure on the loss of morale.

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 heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.

The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy's forces, is the first-born son of war.

War should never be thought of as something autonomous, but always as an instrument of policy.

The more physical the activity, the less the difficulties will be. The more the activity becomes intellectual and turns into motives which exercise a determining influence on the commander's will, the more the difficulties will increase.