Quotes About Strategy

Only later did we discover that our planned drop zone had been strongly covered by the enemy with rifle pits and automatic weapons all around its perimeter. Had the drop taken place as planned, it was quite possible "that the greater breadth of the target would have given the waiting Germans a greatly enhanced opportunity for killing." Planned or not, Easy Company was scattered across a wide dispersal area several miles west of our objective. How the remainder of the

I wanted to ask him if that was part of the plan, but I knew he would have said yes. The plan was to make war; anything that followed was part of it.

You know, I look like a woman but I think like a man. And in this world of business, that has helped me a lot. Because by the time they think that I don't know what's goin' on, I then got the money, and gone.

The basic lesson of 1805–7 was that not only must the three eastern monarchies unite but the Russian army must already be positioned in central Europe when military operations began.

Never play cat and mouse games if you're a mouse.

People who are in power make their arrangements in secret, largely as a way of maintaining and furthering that power.

The pitcher has to find out if the hitter is timid. And if the hitter is timid, he has to remind the hitter he's timid.

overwhelmed the Scots. The Prince's lack of skill as a commander

Machiavelli taught me it was better to be feared than loved. Because if you are loved they sense you might be weak. I am a man of the people and help them but it is important to do so through strength.

The female of all species are most dangerous when they appear to retreat.

another policy review sparked by George Bush's "gut instinct

I can see exactly what not to do at the moment. No doubt through the usual process of elimination I'll arrive at my favourite strategy of total paralysis.

Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.

The old dictum is that "no plan survives first contact with the enemy," and the special-ops team is already regrouping and improvising a new plan. He hears the sharp, disciplined fire

When you want to catch a fish, you gotta give it the bait it's hungry for.

a whole lot of ideas isn't a plan. A plan is a bunch of details that mesh with one another, so you go from this step to this step like crossing a stream on a lot of little boulders sticking out, and never fall in. Ideas without a plan is usually just enough boulders to get you into the deep part of the stream, and no way to get back.

Government is good at generating ideas. In

One cannot take a coward on dangerous missions or trust one's fortune to a fool. How then are cowards and fools to be employed?

Whosoever insists on winning must play at trivial games; no interesting victory is ever assured.

The advantage always favors the one who is trying to create fear, over the one who is trying to erase it."87

Rowing harder doesn't help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.

Golf without bunkers and hazards would be tame and monotonous. So would life.

Profit for a company is like oxygen for a person. If you don't have enough of it, you're out of the game. But if you think your life is about breathing, you're really missing something.

I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business.