Quote #55
In such dangerous things as war the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are the worst things.
More from Karl von Clausewitz
- Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
- In war the result is never final.
- Surprise becomes effective when we suddenly face the enemy at one point with far more troops than he expected. This type of numerical super…
- Politics is the womb in which war develops - where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of…
- If defense is the stronger form of war, yet has a negative object, it follows that it should be used only so long as weakness compels, and …
- The Conqueror is always a lover of peace: he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.
- All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.
- Theory should be study, not doctrine.