Carl von Clausewitz Quotes

A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.

We have to go in places no body would ever think of going into were it not for the necessities of war.

It was not that the Americans lacked the capacity to force their allies into line… What is surprising is how rarely this happened…

If diplomacy has any chance to work, it must be coupled with a credible military threat.

I love the infantry because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without.

To get people to compromise, you have to give them stuff.

I have always said that a conference was held for one reason only, to give everybody a chance to get sore at everybody else. Sometimes it takes two or three conferences to scare up a war, but generally one will do it.

How do you fight someone who doesn't care if they get killed? You accommodate them.

According to true military art, one should never push one's enemy to the point of despair, because such a state multiplies his strength and increases his courage which had already been crushed and failing, and because there is no better remedy for the health of beaten and overwhelmed men than the absence of all hope.

Nevertheless, I take all of these slings and arrows gladly for you.

It's easy to talk, it's harder to fight.

Direct pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent.

This is war,' I yelled through the door. Lucky for me,' Morelli said. 'I give good war.

Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace?

If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is tempermental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

I was a military man for 27 years. I fought so long as there was no chance for peace. I believe that there is now a chance for peace, a great chance. We must take advantage of it for the sake of those standing here, and for those who are not here - and they are many.

Only if you give the Palestinians something to lose is there a hope that they will agree to moderate their demands.... I believe that as soon as Ahmed has a seat in the bus, he will limit his demands.

Compromise is the door through which deception enters.

He will apologize, or I'll give him a lesson in swordplay he will not like at all.

Marriage like government is a series of compromises. One must give and take, repair and restrain, endure and be patient.

A general must be shot or befriended - but never hurt.

Break what must be broken, once for all, that's all, and take the suffering on oneself.

You concede nothing to me and I have to concede everything to you.

To try to blackmail a president into giving them some concessions on issues that have nothing to do with the budget.

There are few occasions when we should make a bad bargain by giving up the good on condition that no ill was said of us.