Carl von Clausewitz Quotes

Any clever person can make plans for winning a war if he has no responsibility for carrying them out.

Strategy is the most important department of the art of war, and strategical skill is the highest and rarest function of military genius.

Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic. ... This is the only way to become a great general and master the secrets of the art of war.

Rule 1, on page I of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives...

The art of war is at once comprehensive and complicated; ... it demands much previous study; and ... the possession of it, in its most improved and perfect state, is always a great moment to the security of a nation. This, therefore, ought to be a serious care of every government; and for this purpose, an academy, where a regular course of instruction is given, is an obvious expedient, which different nations have successfully employed.

The military weapon is but one of the means that serve the purposes of war: one out of the assortment which grand strategy can employ.

The idea that the United States is going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong.

There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war.

In war, practice dissimulation and you will succeed.

The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one.

The secret of war lies in the communications.

If the enemy has occupied them before you, do not follow him, but retreat and try to entice him away.

If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.

Strategy was first used in Athens (508 BC) to describe the art of leadership used by the ten generals on the war council. Some argue for the more creative, human side, while others argue for the more analytic side of strategy.

It is important not to let emotions get in the way of cold, hard, calculated military planning. Emotions may win arguments, but they don't win wars.

When we do go to combat, it should be with a defined mission and a plan for withdrawal.

In war, groping tactics, half-way measures, lose everything.

The art of war is to gain time when your strength is inferior.

A general-in-chief should ask himself several times in the day, What if the enemy were to appear now in my front, or on my right, or my left?

In his fairy dreams of war [Thaddeus] always made conquest the sure end of his battles.

There is no lie in war or preparation of war that can't be defended.

It is imperative to master the principles of the art of war and learn to be unmoved in mind even in the heat of the battle.

Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: 'Do not march on Moscow'... Rule 2 is: Do not go fighting with your land armies in China.

You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.

When our new armies are ready it seems folly to send them to Flanders, where they will chew barbed wire, or be wasted in futile frontal attacks.