Quotes About Strategy

Without a Mayaguez, or something comparable that we don't see in the immediate future, there is probably no one thing the President can do to himself to turn this situation around.

This is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, but I think it once again points out how very important style of leadership, that is the way he does what he does, is to his perception.

Corson arrived at the Academy in September 1964 as an instructor. His course in guerrilla warfare quickly became a midshipman favorite. His teaching methods were unconventional. He had books imported from mainland China, including three volumes of Mao's writing. To Corson, the lesson was clear: if you can't outlast the guerrilla, don't get in the game.

John Churchill, soon Duke of Marlborough, was a rare phenomenon: a brilliant English general. He

Make every decision as if you owned the whole company.

Top management is supposed to be a tree full of owls...hooting when management heads into the wrong part of the forest. I'm still unpersuaded they even know where the forest is.

And here lies the true value of the $499 espresso machine, which, for all I know, is still gathering dust on the shelf in that same store. Its critical function had less to do with selling itself than to provide contrast with the rest of the product line. How many of its more reasonably priced colleagues did that awkward $499 model help sell? A good decoy is a team player-it makes everything around it look better.

The balance of power.

To fail to plan is to plan to fail.

The trick to developing a new computer or program, then, is not to hire a lot of smart people but to hire a few very smart people. This rule lies at the heart of most successful ventures in the personal computer industry.

Since the aim of masturbation is to give the male an edge over others in sperm warfare, he gains most if he masturbates but can dissuade those around him from doing so. That way, he gains competitive benefits that his rivals do not. The world-wide tendency to criticise, even victimise, other people for masturbating while continuing to masturbate oneself is thus as strategic as masturbation itself.

Diplomacy is the velvet glove that cloaks the fist of power.

The art of diplomacy is the luck of knowing more of your rival's secrets than he knows of yours.

Assassins take no pride in fighting fairly. We take pride in winning.

I do not know whom I wish to win; until I do, I will let no player be eliminated.

A wise old man taught me that diplomacy is the velvet glove that cloaks the fist of power. Persuasion, not force, works best and lasts longest.

Diplomacy may very well be the art of manipulating secrets. What would any negotiation come to, were not there secrets to either share or withhold?

It was well to impress one's enemies with a show of strength. It was even better to be sure one's friends remembered it as well.

The weapon we throw away today is the one at our throats tomorrow

But a wall that will not yield to a battering ram can still be breached by the gentle twining of ivy.

Suspense was an excellent tool for keeping powerful people off balance. It gave one bargaining power.

The art of diplomacy is the luck of knowing more of your rival's secrets than he knows of yours. Always deal from a position of power. These were Shrewd's maxims. And Verity abided by them.

I'll be teaching you the nasty, furtive, polite ways to kill people

If she could make them both irritated with her, chances are they would commiserate with each other. So it had always worked when they were boys.