Tom Seaver Quotes

Military decisions are much more difficult and more often wrong than civilian decisions.

Blunders are an inescapable feature of war, because choice in military affairs lies generally between the bad and the worse.

The power to wage war is the power to wage war successfully.

The biggest problem was the politicians knew nothing about fighting a war.

Warfare evolves. It changes as a result of technology. It changes as the culture changes.

As not infrequently happens in the affairs of war, it is easier to point out mistakes after they are committed, than to see and avoid them amid the difficulties and dangers by which the military commander is at the moment surrounded.

It is madness to attempt to hold. In the first place the troops cannot do it and in the second place if they do not retreat they will be destroyed. I repeat that this order be rescinded or that you find someone else.

We all know that in war the political and military factors have to complement each other.

We have long possessed the art of war and the science of war, which have been evolved in the minutest detail.

Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

We shouldn't have politicians micromanaging this war because it is complex and unconventional.

You assume things, like whatever country has more firepower wins the wars, and that's actually not true at all.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

The idea that a war can be won by standing on the defensive and waiting for the enemy to attack is a dangerous fallacy, which owes its inception to the desire to evade the price of victory.

If men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.

Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one; it is man and not materials that counts.

To go to war, you must always think of, can you win?

In any case, decisions on troop levels in the American system of government are not made by any general or set of generals but by the civilian leadership of the war effort.

Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head.

Fighting wars is not so much about killing people as it is about finding things out. The more you know, the more likely you are to win a battle.

The whole art of war consists of guessing at what is on the other side of the hill.

The military mind always imagines that the next war will be on the same lines as the last.

In cases of defense, it is best to weigh the enemy more than he seems.

We realize that wars are never won on the defensive. We must take the battle to the enemy

A fatal mistake in war is to underrate the strength, feeling and resources of an enemy.