What we should admire is the acute fulfillment of the unspoken assumptions, the smooth harmony of the whole activity, which only become evident in the final success.

The general unreliability of all information presents a special problem in war: all action takes place, so to speak, in the twilight, which, like fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are. Whatever is hidden from full view in this feeble light has to be guessed at by talent, or simply left to chance. So once again for the lack of objective knowledge, one has to trust to talent or to luck.

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

No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy

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

It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.

Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity