The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy's forces, is the first-born son of war.

Politics is the womb in which war develops - where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of living creatures in their embryos.

In 1793 such a force as no one had any conception of made its appearance. War had again suddenly become an affair of the people, and that of a people numbering thirty millions, every one of whom regarded himself as a citizen of the State... By this participation of the people in the war... a whole Nation with its natural weight came into the scale.

The Conqueror is always a lover of peace: he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.

War should never be thought of as something autonomous, but always as an instrument of policy.

The side that feels the lesser urge for peace will naturally get the better bargain.

Boldness becomes rarer, the higher the rank.