Quotes About Strategy

The parties with the most gain never show up on the battlefield.

This was the Bad Science strategy in a nutshell: plant complaints in op-ed pieces, in letters to the editor, and in articles in mainstream journals to whom you'd supplied the "facts," and then quote them as if they really were facts. Quote, in fact, yourself. A perfect rhetorical circle. A mass media echo chamber of your own construction.

In war, the moral is to the physical as ten to one.

Gentlemen. If you're going to take Vienna, take it.

The great difficulty with politics is, that there are no established principles.

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.

in this life we are either kings or pawns emperors and fools

The principles of war are the same as those of a siege. Fire must be concentrated on one point, and as soon as the breach is made, the equilibrium is broken and the rest is nothing.

In this life, we are either kings or pawns, Emperors or fools

To have ultimate victory, you must be ruthless.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

I have destroyed the Austrian army by simply marching

Revolutions are ideal times for soldiers with a lot of wit — and the courage to act.

The men who have changed the world never succeeded by winning over the powerful, but always by stirring the masses. The first method is a resort to intrigue and only brings limited result. The latter is the course of genius and changes the face of the world.

Soldiers usually win the battles and generals get the credit for them.

Every soldier carries a marshall's baton in his pack.

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

It is easy to know when a government wishes for peace by observing the character of the person sent to negotiate for it.

Nothing is so contrary to military rules as to make the strength of your army known, either in the orders of the day, in proclamations, or in the newspapers.

The secret of great battles consists in knowing how to deploy and concentrate at the right time.

Changing from the defensive to the offensive, is one of the most delicate operations in war.

In war, three quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and materials counts only for the remaining quarter.

My most splendid campaign was that of March 20; not a single shot was fired.