“Action in war is like movement in a resistant element. Just as the simplest and most natural of movements, walking, cannot easily be performed in water, so in war it is difficult for normal efforts to achieve even moderate results.”

Source: On War (1832), Book 1, Ch. 7, as translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret (1976).

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Carl von Clausewitz 68
German-Prussian soldier and military theorist 1780–1831

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