Quotes from Carl von Clausewitz

No one starts a war—or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so—without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it.

der Handelnde im Kriege die Dinge unaufhörlich anders findet, als er sie erwartet hatte

A distinguished commander without boldness is unthinkable. no man who is not…bold can play such a role, and therefore we consider this quality the first prerequisite of the great military leader. How much of this quality remains by the time he reaches senior rank, after training and experience have affected and modified it, is another question. The greater the extent to which it is retained, the greater the range of his genius.

nichts gewöhnlicher ist als Beispiele von Männern, die ihre Tätigkeit verlieren, sobald sie zu höheren Stellen gelangen, denen ihre Einsichten nicht mehr gewachsen sind;

in [...] gefährlichen Dingen [...] sind die Irrtümer, welche aus Gutmütigkeit entstehen, gerade die schlimmsten.

The presence of a commander should be constantly felt and evoke a feeling of courage within his men.

War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means.

In war everything is simple, but it's the simple things that are difficult.

War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.

No other human activity is so continuously or universally bound up with chance. And through the element of chance, guesswork and luck come to play a great part in war.

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

In war more than anywhere else, things do not turn out as we expect.

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.

Knowledge in war is very simple, being concerned with so few subjects, and only with their final results at that. But this does not make its application easy.

Friction is the only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper.

War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others.

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.

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 their embryos.

War is merely the continuation of politics by other means

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

Close combat, man to man, is plainly to be regarded as the real basis of combat.

Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.

...as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.

Men are always more inclined to pitch their estimate of the enemy's strength too high than too low, such is human nature.