Quotes by Karl Clausewitz

• War is the province of danger.
• The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.
• The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation form their purposes.
• Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.
• War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
• War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.
• War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.
• War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.
• The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.
• To secure peace is to prepare for war.
• War is the continuation of politics by other means.
• I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.
• Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.
• War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.
• Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
• Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.
• If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.
• It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.
• All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.
• Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.
• A conqueror is always a lover of peace.
• Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.
• Politics is the womb in which war develops.
• Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.
• Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.