Carl von Clausewitz

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.

It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.

The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.

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.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.

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.

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.

Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.

War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.