Carl von Clausewitz

Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.

A conqueror is always a lover of peace.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

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.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

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.