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

The invention of gunpowder and the constant improvement of firearms are enough in themselves to show that the advance of civilization has done nothing practical to alter or deflect the impulse to destroy the enemy, which is central to the very idea of war.

With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater the margin that can be left for accidents.

The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish ... the kind of war on which they are embarking.

Only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.

Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.

Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.