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

War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.

[The cause of inaction in war] ... is the imperfection of human perception and judgment which is more pronounced in war than anywhere else. We hardly know accurately our own situation at any particular moment while the enemy's, which is concealed from us, must be deduced from very little evidence.

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

The art of war in its highest point of view is policy.

Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.

Where execution is dominant, as it is in the individual events of a war whether great or small, then intellectual factors are reduced to a minimum.