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

...as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.

War is the realm of uncertainty; three-quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. ... war is the realm of chance. No other human activity gives it greater scope; no other has such incessant and varied dealings with this intruder. Chance makes everything more uncertain and interferes with the whole course of events.

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.

The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.

Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.

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