No 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.

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.

By 'intelligence' we mean every sort of information about the enemy and his country - the basis, in short, of our own plans and operations.

No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy

Criticism exists only to recognize the truth, not to act as judge.

Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them.

Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment.