Carl von Clausewitz Quotes

Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

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

Simple things are always the most difficult.

The phenomenon of war is its hermaphroditism: the principles of victory and of defeat inhabit the same body and the necessary opponent, enemy, is merely the bed they self-exhaust each other on.

If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight.

Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war. ... Countless minor incidents - the kind you can never really foresee - combine to lower the general level of performance, so that one always falls short of the intended goal.

The art of war in its highest point of view is policy.

Councils of War never fight.

War is always a struggle in which each contender tries to annihilate the other. Besides using force, they will have recourse to all possible tricks and stratagems to achieve the goal.

War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.

Tough talk often draws headlines, but war rarely conforms to slogans.

War: A by-product of the arts of peace.

We say peace and the echo comes back from the other side, war. We dont want wars even when we win.

War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory.

If there is a conflict between the easy drift of prosperity and the ordeal of peace, the ordeal of peace comes first.

Attack and defence, want and war, victory and defeat, lordship and thraldom, all sealed with the seal of blood: this from henceforth is the History of Man.

I think that if you don't think we're in a war that you can't win the war.

Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans, the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces, the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field, and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.

Nothing is more difficult than the art of maneuvering for advantageous positions.

War is about remaking the world to suit the whims of some powerful group over the whims of some other powerful group. The dead are just the sparks that fly from the metal as they grind it down.

It is the oldest ironies that are still the most satisfying: man, when preparing for bloody war, will orate loudly and most eloquently in the name of peace.

There is no working middle course in wartime.

Let us face squarely the paradox that the world which goes to war is a world, usually genuinely desiring peace. War is the outcome, not mainly of evil intentions, but on the whole of good intentions which miscarry or are frustrated. It is made not usually by evil men knowing themselves to be wrong, but is the outcome of policies pursued by good men usually passionately convinced that they are right.

President Bush said the other day the war is not about timetables. It's about winning. Hey, it worked in Florida.