Carl von Clausewitz: Trending quotes (page 2)

“Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.”

“If we do not learn to regard a war, and the separate campaigns of which it is composed, as a chain of linked engagements each leading to the next, but instead succumb to the idea that the capture of certain geographical points or the seizure of undefended provinces are of value in themselves, we are liable to regard them as windfall profits. In so doing, and in ignoring the fact that they are links in a continuous chain of events, we also ignore the possibility that their possession may later lead to definite disadvantages.”

“Essentally combat is an expression of hostile feelings. But in the large-scale combat that we call war hostile feelings often have become merely hostile intentions. At any rate, there are usually no hostile feelings between individuals. Yet such emotions can never be completely absent from war. Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations; this serves as a more or less substitute for the hatred between individuals. Even when there is no natural hatred and no animosity to start with, the fighting itself will stir up hostile feelings: violence committed on superior orders will stir up the desire for revenge and retaliation against the perpetrator rather than against the powers that ordered the action. It is only human (or animal, if you like), but it is a fact.”

“…the role of determination is to limit the agonies of doubt and the perils of hesitation when the motives for action are inadequate.”

“… only a fraction of book learning will seep into practical life anyhow; and the more foolish the theory, the less of it.”

“Where execution is dominant, as it is in the individual events of a war whether great or small, then intellectual factors are reduced to a minimum.”

“If the mind is to emerge unscathed from this relentless struggle with the unforeseen, two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.”

“…the side that feels the lesser urge for peace will naturally get the better bargain.”

“Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.”

“…an intellectual instinct which extracts the essence from the phenomena of life, as a bee sucks honey from a flower. In addition to study and reflections, life itself serves as a source.”

“Architects and painters know precisely what they are about as long as they deal with material phenomena. … But when they come to the aesthetics of their work, when they aim at a particular effect on the mind or on the senses, the rules dissolve into nothing but vague ideas.”

“Beauty cannot be defined by abscissas and ordinates; neither are circles and ellipses created by their geometrical formulas.”

“Of all the passions that inspire a man in a battle, none, we have to admit, is so powerful and so constant as the longing for honor and reknown.”

“What we should admire is the acute fulfillment of the unspoken assumptions, the smooth harmony of the whole activity, which only become evident in the final success.”

“…only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.”

“…in the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.”

“A prince or general can best demonstrate his genius by managing a campaign exactly to suit his objectives and his resources, doing neither too much nor too little.”

“Knowledge must be so absorbed into the mind that it ceases to exist in a separate, objective way.”

“…talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.”