War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.

Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.

Lastly, the great uncertainty of all data in War is a peculiar difficulty, because all action must, to a certain extent, be planned in a mere twilight, which in addition not unfrequently — like the effect of a fog or moonshine — gives to things exaggerated dimensions and an unnatural appearance.

No other human activity is so continuously or universally bound up with chance. And through the element of chance, guesswork and luck come to play a great part in war.

In War more than anywhere else in the world things happen differently to what we had expected, and look differently when near, to what they did at a distance.

Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations; this serves more or less as a substitute for hatred between individuals.

War is the province of danger.