On War Quotes

“War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom.”
― Carl Von Clausewitz, On War

“Anyone who falls into the habit of thinking and expecting the best of his subordinates at all times is, for that reason alone, unsuited to command an army”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“If we read history with an open mind, we cannot fail to conclude that, among all the military virtues, the energetic conduct of war has always contributed most to glory and success.”
― Carl Von Clausewitz, On War

“... a strong character is one that will not be unbalanced by the most powerful emotions”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“The aggressor is always peace-loving (as Bonaparte always claimed to be); he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“history had no lessons or rules to offer the student, it could only broaden his understanding and strengthen his critical judgment.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“[...] to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity”
― Carl Von Clausewitz, On War

“The talent of the strategist is to identify the decisive point and to concentrate everything on it, removing forces from secondary fronts and ignoring lesser objectives.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“But everything takes a different shape when we pass from abstractions to reality. In the former, everything must be subject to optimism, and we must imagine the one side as well as the other striving after perfection and even attaining it. Will this ever take place in reality?”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“peace is maintained by the equilibrium of forces, and will continue just as long as this equilibrium exists, and no longer.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish by that test the kind of war on which they are embarking; neither mistaking it for, nor trying to turn it into, something that is alien to its nature.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“...vanity is content with the appearance alone”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“If, adhering closely to the absolute, we try to avoid all difficulties by a stroke of the pen, and insist with logical strictness that in every case the extreme must be the object, and the utmost effort must be exerted in that direction, such a stroke of the pen would be a mere paper law, not by any means adapted to the real world.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“Pity the theory which sets itself in opposition to the mind! It cannot repair this contradiction by any humility, and the humbler it is so much the sooner will ridicule and contempt drive it from real life.”
― Carl Von Clausewitz, On War

“The Statesman who, knowing his instrument to be ready, and seeing War inevitable, hesitates to strike first is guilty of a crime against his country.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“We propose to consider first the single elements of our subject, then each branch of part, and, last of all, the whole in all its relations-therefore to advance from the simple to the complex. But it is necessary for us to commence with a glance at the nature of the whole, because it is particularly necessary that in the consideration of any of the parts their relation to the whole be kept constantly in view.

We shall not enter into any of the abstruse definitions of War used by publicists. We shall keep to the element of the thing itself, to a duel. War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale. If we would conceive as a unit the countless number of duels which make up a War, we shall do so best by supposing to ourselves two wrestlers. Each strives by physical force to compel the other to submit to his will: each endeavors to throw his adversary, and thus render him incapable of further resistance.

War therefore is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.”
― Carl Von Clausewitz, On War

“For political and social as well as for military reasons the preferred way of bringing about victory was the shortest, most direct way, and that meant using all possible force.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and means can never be considered in isolation from their purpose”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“The worst position in which a belligerent can be placed is that of being completely disarmed. If, therefore, the enemy is to be reduced to submission by an act of war, he must either be positively disarmed or placed in such a position that he is threatened with it according to probability. From this it follows that the disarming or overthrow of the enemy, whichever we call it, must always be the aim of warfare. Now war is always the shock of two hostile bodies in collision, not the action of a living power upon an inanimate mass, because an absolute state of endurance would not be making war; therefore what we have just said as to the aim of action in war applies to both parties. Here then is another case of reciprocal action. As long as the enemy is not defeated, I have to apprehend that he may defeat me, then I shall be no longer my own master, but he will dictate the law to me as I did to him. This is the second reciprocal action and leads to a second extreme (second reciprocal action).”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War: The Classic Book of Military Strategy

“الحرب هي مواصلة السياسة بطريقة أخرى”
― كلاوزفيتر, عن الحرب

“Válka je jen pokračování diplomacie jinými prostředky.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“Out of the whole multitude of prudent men in the world, the great majority are so from timidity.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“If the wars of civilised people are less cruel and destructive than those of savages, the difference arises from the social condition both of states in themselves and in their relations to each other. Out of this social condition and its relations war arises, and by it war is subjected to conditions, is controlled and modified. But these things do not belong to war itself; they are only given conditions; and to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War: The Classic Book of Military Strategy

“(1) War becomes a completely isolated act, which arises suddenly, and is in no way connected with the previous history of the combatant States. (2) If it is limited to a single solution, or to several simultaneous solutions. (3) If it contains within itself the solution perfect and complete, free from any reaction upon it, through a calculation beforehand of the political situation which will follow from it.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“If we then ask what sort of mind is likeliest to display the qualities of military genius, experience and observation will both tell us that it is the inquiring rather than the creative mind, the comprehensive rather than the specialized approach, the calm rather than the excitable head to which in war we would choose to entrust...”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

“If we now turn to strength of mind or soul, then the first question is, What are we to understand thereby?

Plainly it is not vehement expressions of feeling, nor easily excited passions, for that would be contrary to all the usage of language, but the power of listening to reason in the midst of the most intense excitement, in the storm of the most violent passions. Should this power depend on strength of understanding alone? We doubt it. The fact that there are men of the greatest intellect who cannot command themselves certainly proves nothing to the contrary, for we might say that it perhaps requires an understanding of a powerful rather than of a comprehensive nature; but we believe we shall be nearer the truth if we assume that the power of submitting oneself to the control of the understanding, even in moments of the most violent excitement of the feelings, that power which we call self-command, has its root in the heart itself. It is, in point of fact, another feeling, which in strong minds balances the excited passions without destroying them; and it is only through this equilibrium that the mastery of the understanding is secured. This counterpoise is nothing but a sense of the dignity of man, that noblest pride, that deeply-seated desire of the soul always to act as a being endued with understanding and reason. We may therefore say that a strong mind is one which does not lose its balance even under the most violent excitement.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War