Quotes About Strategy

What would you do, if you were besieged in a place entirely destitute of provisions? As long as there was anything to eat in the enemy's camp, answered Napoleon, "I should not be at all concerned. A will finds a way.

He could see Bonzo's anger growing hot. Hot anger was bad. Ender's anger was cold, and he could use it. Bonzo's was hot, and so it used him.

Since when do you have to tell the enemy when he has won

The enemy gate is down.

Colonel Graff: We won! That's all that matters. Ender Wiggin: No. The way we win matters.

You were faster than me. Better than me. I was too old and cautious. Any decent person who knos waht warfare is can never go into battle with a whole heart. But you didn't know. We made sure youo didn't know. You were reckless and brilliant and young. It's waht you were born for.

Whatever your gravity is when you get to the door, remember?the enemy's gate is down . If you step through your own door like you're out for a stroll, you're a big target and you deserve to get hit. With more than a flasher.

Nonsense, said Graff. Ender always has plans within plans.

A good commander, thought Ender, doesn't have to make stupid threats.

Every time, I've won because I could understand the way my enemy though. From what they did. I could tell what they though I was doing, how they wanted the battle to take shape. And I played off of that. I'm very good at that. Understanding how other people think. - Ender Wiggin

Do not be disingenuous with me, Colonel Graff. Americans are quite apt at playing stupid when they choose to, but I am not to be deceived.

No army had ever fragmented itself like that before, but ender was not planning to do anything that had been done before, either.

Because here's the thing?we don't give a shit about fairness here. We're soldiers. Soldiers do not give the other guy a sporting chance. Soldiers shoot in the back, lay traps and ambushes, lie to the enemy and outnumber the other bastard every chance they get. Your kind of murder only works among civilians. And you were too cocky, too stupid, too insane to realize it.

The classes were valuable, but the real education was the game.

It had to be a trick or you couldn't have done it.

Ender's anger was cold, and he could use it. Bonzo's was hot, and so it used him.

Just one more example of why a commander who ruled by fear and made all the decisions himself would always be beaten, sooner or later.

What about this? A colony of nothing but Battle School grads. If they bred true, they'd be the smartest military minds in the galaxy. Then they'd come home and take over Earth. OK, not that.

There are rules to everything, even if nobody made them up, even if nobody calls it a game. And if you want things to work out well, it's best to know the rules and only break them if you're playing a different game and following those rules.

The enemy's gate is down.

You have to think ahead, the next move, the next move, the next move, to see where it's all going to lead.

Ender Wiggin isn't a killer. He just wins—thoroughly. If anybody's going to be scared, let it be the buggers." "Makes you almost feel sorry for them, knowing Ender's going to be coming after them.

There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy show you where you are weak. Only the enemy shows you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. – Mazer Rackham

He knew he could always be smart later, if that turned out to be a better strategy. But once you admitted to being smart, there was no going back.