Quotes About Strategy

Corporal Nobbs," he rasped, "why are you kicking people when they're down?" "Safest way, sir," said Nobby. Nobby had long ago been told about fighting fair and not striking a fallen opponent, and had then given some creative thought to how these rules applied to someone four feet tall with the muscle tone of an elastic band.

When they're laughing at you, their guard is down. When their guard is down, you can kick them in the fracas.

A bad hunter chases, a good hunter waits.

The way to deal with an impossible task was to chop it down into a number of merely very difficult tasks, and break each one of them into a group of horribly hard tasks, and each of them into tricky jobs, and each of them...

A man can learn all of an opponent's weaknesses on that board,' said Gilt. 'Really?' said Vetinari, raising his eyebrows. 'Should not he be trying to learn his own?

The truly smart, having discovered they are cleverer than the people around them, soon learn that the smartest thing of all for them to do is to prevent said people from ever finding this out.

Do unto others before they do unto you.

The point is not to avoid the war, it is to win it.

all reputable falconers agreed that for hunting purposes the only way you could reliably bring down prey with a wowhawk was by using it in a slingshot.

What will you do?" said Susan. "Lie," said Lu-Tze happily. "It's amazing how often that works.

They sometimes forgot what happened if you let a pawn get all the way up the board.

You don't have to chase around after creatures, Pismire had said. You watch them for long enough, and then you'll find the place to wait and they'll come to you. There's nearly always a better way of doing something.

Incidentally, it's best not to argue with the nursing staff. I find the best course of action is to throw some chocolates in one direction and hurry off in the other while their attention is distracted.

We—we spread out," he said. "Yes. We spread out. That's what we do." They moved carefully through the bracken. The sergeant crouched behind a handy log, and said, "Right. Very good. You've got the general idea. Now let's spread out again, and this time we spread out separately.

Sergeant Colon was lost in admiration. He'd seen people bluff on a bad hand, but he'd never seen anyone bluff with no cards.

Cats are like witches. They don't fight to kill, but to win. There is a difference.

You see a wile, you thwart. Am I right?

He'd been a successful soldier, as these things went; he'd generally been on the winning side, and had killed more of the enemy by good if dull tactics than his own men by bad but exciting ones.

Tell me, Leonard,' he said. 'Has it ever occurred to you that one day wars will be fought with brains?' Leonard picked up his coffee cup. 'Oh dear. Won't that be rather messy?' he said.

If you would seek war, prepare for war.'" "I believe, my lord, the saying is 'If you would seek peace, prepare for war,'" Leonard ventured. Vetinari put his head on one side and his lips moved as he repeated the phrase to himself. Finally he said, "No, no. I just don't see that one at all.

It's not gambling to play against someone who's no good. It's common sense.

Witches preferred to cut enemies dead with a look. There was no sense in killing your enemy. How would she know you'd won?

That's how it goes. Meetings in rooms. A little diplomacy, a little give and take, a promise here, an understanding there. That's how real revolutions happen.

Vimes had never got on with any game much more complex than darts. Chess in particular had always annoyed him. It was the dumb way the pawns went off and slaughtered their fellow pawns while the kings lounged about doing nothing that always got to him; if only the pawns united, maybe talked the rooks round, the whole board could've been a republic in a dozen moves.