Action in war is like movement in a resistant element. Just as the simplest and most natural of movements, walking, cannot easily be performed in water, so in war, it is difficult for normal efforts to achieve even moderate results.

No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.

Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.

The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.

This tremendous friction which cannot, as in mechanics, be reduced to a few points, is everywhere in contact with chance, and brings about effects that cannot be measured just because they are largely due to chance.

There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war.

The only situation a commander can know fully is his own: his opponent's he can know only from unreliable intelligence.