Quotes from Carl von Clausewitz

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

The art of war in its highest point of view is policy.

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.

With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater the margin that can be left for accidents.

Just as some plants bear fruit only if they don't shoot up too high, so in practical arts the leaves and flowers of theory must be pruned and the plant kept close to its proper soil- experience.

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.