Quotes About Strategy

Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy". This was the dictum of Siegbert Tarrasch, one of the greatest chessmasters of all time, after 50 years of chess playing.

But even the best luck is no good until it's used, and we must find the right way to use it.

Speculation is an effort, probably unsuccessful, to turn a little money into a lot. Investment is an effort, which should be successful, to prevent a lot of money from becoming a little.

The indignation school of writers never tires of pointing out the millions that are stolen in the Street. But while the millions are being stolen, the billions are being lost. Nothing crooked—just bad luck and bad brains met together in an effort to do something that couldn't be done in the first place.

So China will be having to make some choices as to whose side it wants to be on. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a major improvement in our relationship with them, if they choose correctly.

El amor, Ariane, es la única batalla que se gana retrocediendo. –¿Quién es el cretino que dijo eso? ¿Tú? –Bonaparte, que no era moco de pavo en cuestión de estrategia.

Adamsberg, badi bene, non attacca, ma ti trasforma, ti accerchia, ti prende alle spalle, ti neutralizza e alla fine ti disarma. Non può essere né braccato né preso. Neanche da lei, Regina Mathilde.

The only way you win is by knowing what you're good at and what you're not good at, and sticking to what you're good at.

America can take many things, but she cannot take massive casualties. Saddam can. They don't matter to him.

He said that it was not his job to ensure that his soldiers died for their country. It was his job to make sure the other poor bastards died for theirs. Understand?

Don't forget your great guns, which are the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings.

The Long Telegram'.

This was the "raid which went horribly right"...

conspirational tradecraft

By push of bayonets, no firing till you see the whites of their eyes.

Politics consists more in profiting from favorable circumstances than preparing them in advance.

Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments.

On George Eliot's narrative strategy) It also forfeits the great game of the omniscient narrator, which is to know secrets which none of the characters involved will ever learn, ironically taking their unhappy ignorance to the grave.

We have long possessed the art of war and the science of war, which have been evolved in the minutest detail.

Those who do not do politics will be done in by politics.

In life we have to size up the chances and calculate the possible risks and our ability to deal with them and then make our plans accordingly.

Religion and political expediency go beautifully hand in hand.

Emotions have no place in business, unless you do business with them.

A major power can afford a military debacle only when it looks like a political victory.