Independent thinking is not encouraged in a professional Army. It is a form of mutiny. Obedience is the supreme virtue.

[The General Staff] maintained three sets of casualty figures, one to fool the public, one to fool the Government and one to fool themselves.

Anything can be achieved in small, deliberate steps. But there are times you need the courage to take a great leap; you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.

God has chosen little nations as the vessels by which He carries His choicest wines to the lips of humanity to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to strengthen their faith, and if we had stood by when two little nations [Belgium and Serbia] were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbarians, our shame would have rung down the everlasting ages.

Believe me, Germany is unable to wage war.

Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.

The doctors are always changing their opinions. They always have some new fad.