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

On War (1832), Book 1

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Carl von Clausewitz68

German-Prussian soldier and military theorist 1780–1831

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“It is no harder to explain than a game of cards. There are aces and kings and twos and threes in any deck of cards. A lucky player is dealt a high-scoring hand, but none of his cards is unique. Elsewhere in the room are others with the same kinds of cards in their hands. But even with just thirteen kinds of cards, every hand is different and some are spectacularly better than others. Sex is merely the dealer, generating unique hands from the same monotonous deck of genetic cards shared by the whole species.”

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Variants: It should be noted that the games of children are not games, and must be considered as their most serious actions.
For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.
Book I, Ch. 23
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“The world becomes an apparently infinite,
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“Most games that we are approached with are too close to existing open source games for us to publish… we have no real desire to compete with open source products.”

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Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) First Prime Minister of Singapore

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“Little soldier, little insect
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Or happily in the the dark
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Or a bent up cigarette
In the trenches, in the hard rain
With a bullet and a bet.”

Conor Oberst (1980) American musician

No One Would Riot for Less
Cassadaga (2007)

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

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Carl von Clausewitz68

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