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.
Carl von ClausewitzMany intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.
Carl von ClausewitzNo 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.
Carl von ClausewitzSurprise becomes effective when we suddenly face the enemy at one point with far more troops than he expected. This type of numerical superiority is quite distinct from numerical superiority in general: it is the most powerful medium in the art of war.
Carl von ClausewitzWe repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining oneโs balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a shipโs compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.
Carl von Clausewitz