Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes

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

It is the rule in war, if ten times the enemy's strength, surround them; if five times, attack them; if double, be able to divide them; if equal, engage them; if fewer, defend against them; if weaker, be able to avoid them.

An army marches on its stomach.

If was, increased by a lack of railways in Russia - for bringing up supplies to our advancing troops.

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

If you contemplate some enterprise against the enemy, the commissary must scrape together all the beer and brandy that can be found so that the army does not lack either …

Generals know nothing about the economics of war.

The sinews of war are five - men, money, materials, maintenance (food) and morale.

Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.

And therefore those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him.

Barack Obama has done more than anyone else to promote the dangerous illusion that we can choose whether to have a war or not. But our enemies have already made that choice. Retired Marine Corps General James Mattis said: “No war is over until the enemy says it's over. We may think it's over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote“.

The American way of war is to build an army, then another, then a third, while building fleets. If the war is still on at that point we smash.

It seems to me the worst possible concept, militarily, that we would simply stay there, resisting aggression, so-called...it seems to me that the way to "resist aggression" is to destroy the potentialities of the aggressor to continually hit you...When you say, merely, "we are going to continue to fight aggression," that is not what the enemy is fighting for. The enemy is fighting for a very definite purpose-to destroy our forces.

There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must not be attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.

To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape.

A wise general makes a point of foraging of the enemy.

The first law of war is to preserve ourselves and destroy the enemy.

Although deceit is detestable in all other things, yet in the conduct of war it is laudable and honorable; and a commander who vanquishes an enemy by stratagem is equally praised with one who gains victory by force.

Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.

I have destroyed the enemy merely by marches.

If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.

As almost anyone with war experience knows, you're never supposed to show the enemy what you won't do to win.

It is imperative to contest all factions for complete victory, so the army is not garrisoned and the profit can be total. This is the law of strategic siege.

It has been said by a certain general, that the first object in the establishment of an army ought to be making provision for the belly, that being the basis and foundation of all operations.

I am quite confident that in the foreseeable future armed conflict will not take the form of huge land armies facing each other across extended battle lines, as they did in World War I and World War II or, for that matter, as they would have if NATO had faced the Warsaw Pact on the field of battle.