Any complex activity, if it is to be carried on with any degree of virtuosity, calls for appropriate gifts of intellect and temperament. If they are outstanding and reveal themselves in exceptional achievements, their possessor is called a 'genius'.

Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation form their purposes.

The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.

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

The more physical the activity, the less the difficulties will be. The more the activity becomes intellectual and turns into motives which exercise a determining influence on the commander's will, the more the difficulties will increase.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.