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About this quote

What does it mean?
Theories should guide your study and thinking, not be followed as absolute rules.
In plain terms
Study theories to learn but do not treat them as unchangeable rules.
What can you take from it?
Use theory to learn, not to follow blindly.

Where it applies

  • academic research
  • professional training
  • policy analysis

Putting it to work

  • critique models actively
  • test theory against reality

Questions to consider

  • How do you treat established theories?
  • Where should theory give way to reality?

Another view

In some fields, strict adherence to doctrine ensures safety and consistency.

More from Karl von Clausewitz

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  3. Politics is the womb in which war develops - where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of living creatures in…

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