There is only one decisive victory: the last.

Action in war is like movement in a resistant element. Just as the simplest and most natural of movements, walking, cannot easily be performed in water, so in war, it is difficult for normal efforts to achieve even moderate results.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds; it is a fallacy that must be exposed: War is such a dangerous business that the mistakes which come from kindness are the very worst.

War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.

Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation form their purposes.