Carlos Castaneda Quotes

The first casualty of any battle is the plan of attack.

Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and prompt in his decision.

The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy's cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him.

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning.

It is impossible to anticipate all of the misdeeds engendered by the universal conflict of human passions. They multiply at a compound rate with the growth in population and the interlacing of particular interests that cannot be directed with geometrical precision towards the public utility.

We don’t need corporate generals. We need warrior generals…. Many of our military leaders are like car designers who have never driven a car….they go along to get along.

Mankind has conceived history as a series of battles; hitherto it has considered fighting as the main thing in life.

I don't feel that emotion is a good thing to have in combat. You must be cold.

You don't have to go to the kings and queens of the earth - I think the Greeks and Elizabethans did this because it was a logical concept - but every human being is in enormous conflict about something, even if it's how to get to work in the morning and all of that.

My philosophy is to make an offer that the other guy can't refuse, because he thinks there's no way he can't win.

Gen. Mattis is a warrior. What I appreciate about Gen. Mattis is he understands the principle that if you go to war, you go to war to win.

'Rakta Charitra' was more about human conflict than politics.

A lot of what a military officer does is not just leading troops in combat. It's also doing budgets. It's solving complex problems. If you can sit down with warlords, you can certainly sit down with different parties and folks with different interests and come out with an amenable solution.

It's very unfortunate that war has always been and probably always will be a part of human beings on this planet. It's a terrible thing.

When two opposing sides meet in battle, the one without an enemy will be victorious.

A Warrior knows when a battle is worth fighting.

My philosophy is the same as a Samurai: To hit without getting hit.

Master the divine techniques of the Art of Peace and no enemy will dare to challenge you.

The gladiator lays his plans after he enters the arena.

To be a successful soldier you must know history. . . . What you must know is how man reacts. Weapons change but man who uses them changes not at all. To win battles you do not beat weapons - you beat the soul of man of the enemy man.

You get your freedom by letting your enemy know that you'll do anything to get it. Then you'll get it. It's the only way you'll get it.

Luck?" Drizzt replied. "Perhaps. But more often, I dare to say, luck is simply the advantage a true warrior gains in excuting the correct course of action.

Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril.