Beauty cannot be defined by abscissas and ordinates; neither are circles and ellipses created by their geometrical formulas.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.

Every combat is the bloody and destructive measuring of the strength of forces, physical and moral; whoever at the close has the greatest amount of both left is the conqueror.

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

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

War is the realm of uncertainty; three-quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. ... war is the realm of chance. No other human activity gives it greater scope; no other has such incessant and varied dealings with this intruder. Chance makes everything more uncertain and interferes with the whole course of events.

We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.