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War is the province of danger.

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

What this task requires in the way of higher intellectual gifts is a sense of unity and a power of judgement, raised to a marvelous pitch of vision, which easily grasps and dismisses a thousand remote possibilities an ordinary mind would labor to identify, and wear itself out in doing so.

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerglimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.

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.

The military machine – the army and everything related to it – is basically very simple and therefore seems easy to manage. But we should bear in mind that none of its components is of one piece: each piece is composed of individuals, every one of whom retains his potential of friction … A battalion is made up of individuals, the least important of whom may chance to delay things or somehow make them go wrong.

The best defense is a good offense.