Everything in strategy is very simple, but that does not mean everything is very easy.
Carl von ClausewitzGiven the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity
Carl von ClausewitzThe object of defense is preservation; and since it is easier to hold ground than to take it, defense is easier than attack. But defense has a passive purpose: preservation; and attack a positive one: conquest.... If defense is the stronger form of war, yet has a negative object, it follows that it should be used only so long as weakness compels, and be abandoned as soon as we are strong enough to pursue a positive object.
Carl von ClausewitzWar is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others.
Carl von ClausewitzWar is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
Carl von ClausewitzTo discover how much of our resources must be mobilized for war, we must first examine our political aim and that of the enemy. We must gauge the strength and situation of the opposite state. We must gauge the character and abilities of its government and people and do the same in regard to our own. Finally, we must evaluate the political sympathies of other states and the effect the war may have on them.
Carl von Clausewitz