Quote #38
Where execution is dominant, as it is in the individual events of a war whether great or small, then intellectual factors are reduced to a minimum.
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
More from Karl von Clausewitz
- What we should admire is the acute fulfillment of the unspoken assumptions, the smooth harmony of the whole activity, which only become evi…
- If we do not learn to regard a war, and the separate campaigns of which it is composed, as a chain of linked engagements each leading to th…
- A prince or general can best demonstrate his genius by managing a campaign exactly to suit his objectives and his resources, doing neither …
- ...in war, the advantages and disadvantages of a single action could only be determined by the final balance.
- Anyone who feels the urge to undertake such a task must dedicate himself for his labors as he would prepare for a pilgrimage to distant lan…
- The moral elements are among the most important in war. They constitute the spirit that permeates war as a whole, and at an early stage the…
- Thus it has come about that our theoretical and critical literature, instead of giving plain, straightforward arguments in which the author…
- The commander's talents are given greatest scope in rough hilly country. Mountains allow him too little real command over his scattered uni…