Quotes About Strategy

If your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." The old adage applies here as well. If your only functioning government institution is the military, everything looks like a war—and when everything looks like war, everything looks like a military mission.

I've been looking at companies that are on a positive path vs. a negative path and I've come to use the language of sports, winning streaks and losing streaks.

Thomas remembered something from his boarding-school days. There, he'd strategized. The only way to fight the righteous was to present an argument that would make giving him what he wanted seem the only righteous thing to do.

Dinosaurs lasted so much longer than we have, or probably will, yet their brains were so little. Meaning that stupidity is a good strategy for survival? Our level of intelligence could be a maladaptation, a wrong turn, an aberration.

There's that common expression that goes: Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. But a knife is better than nothing.

Better to have your enemies inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.

Yes. I tried to use the same technique with you. I didn't want to pass out.

Ouça-me este conselho: em política, não se perdoa nem se esquece nada.

não tendo alcançado nada caminhando em linha reta, procurou ver se alcançava caminhando por linha curva. Às vezes é o caminho mais curto. (Linha reta e linha curva)

Garde tes amis près de toi, et tes ennemis encore plus près.

Que pour être efficace, il faut cacher ses intentions.

De là naît une dispute: s'il est meilleur d'être aimé que craint, ou l'inverse. On répond qu'on voudrait être l'un et l'autre; mais comme il est difficile de les marier ensemble, il est beaucoup plus sûr d'être craint qu'aimé, quand on doit manquer de l'un des 2.

From this arises the following question: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is that one would like to be both the one and the other, but because they are difficult to combine, it is far better to be loved than feared if you cannot be both.

En hij kan het beste te werk gaan zoals bekwame boogschutters, die wanneer ze het doel dat ze willen raken te ver weg achten, omdat ze weten wat de kracht van hun boog is, het mikpunt veel hoger nemen dan het doelwit, niet om met hun pijl zo hoog te komen, maar om met behulp van dat hoge mikpunt hun doel te kunnen bereiken.

Ä°nsanlar?n gönlünü hoÅŸ tutmal? ya da onlar? yok etmelidir çünkü insanlar uÄŸrad?klar? küçük zararlar?n öcünü al?rlar büyük zararlar?n öcünü alamazlar bu yüzden insana verilecek zarar intikam korkusu yaratmayacak biçimde olmal?d?r

BaÅŸkas?n?n güçlenmesinin nedeni olan kiÅŸi kendi y?k?m?na yol açar çünkü o güç ya becerinin ya zor kullanman?n sonucudur ve güçlü hale gelmiÅŸ kiÅŸi için bu iki nitelik de kuÅŸkuludur

unutmamak gerekir ki yeni bir düzen getirmeye kalk??maktan daha zor, baÅŸar? olas?l??? daha kuÅŸkulu, yönetilmesi daha tehlikeli bir ÅŸey yoktur; çünkü eski düzenden ç?kar? olan herkes yeni düzeni getirene düÅŸman kesilir, yeni düzenden ç?kar? olabilecek kiÅŸiler ise ancak ?l?ml? birer müttefiktir.

Krall?k etmek için bir krall?k d???nda hiçbir eksiÄŸi yoktu. (Quod nihil illi deerat ad regnandum praeter regnum)

A prince who is not wise himself will never take good advice.

no one should marvel at the ease with which Alexander [the Great] kept possession of Asia, or at the difficulties which others, like Pyrrhus and many more, had in preserving their conquests. The difference does not arise from the greater or lesser ability of the conqueror, but from dissimilarities in the conquered lands.

And you have to understand this, that a prince, especially a new one, cannot observe all those things for which men are esteemed, being often forced, in order to maintain the state, to act contrary to faith, friendship, humanity, and religion. " The Prince, XVIII, 5

This raises the question whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the contrary. My reply is that I would like to be both but as it is difficult to combine love and fear, if one has to choose between them it is far safer to be feared than loved

It is of the greatest important in this world that a man should know himself, and the measure of his own strength and means; and he who knows that he has not a genius for fighting must learn how to govern by the arts of peace.

For, although one may be very strong in armed forces, yet in entering a province one has always need of the goodwill of the natives.