Quotes About Strategy

What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.

On both difficult and easy terrain, you must know the 'tenable' and 'fatal' ground. Occupy tenable ground and attack on fatal ground.

Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.

Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.

Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will.

Thus far the chief purpose of our military establishment has been to win wars. From now on its chief purpose must be to avert them. It can have almost no other useful purpose.

All war is deception.

Speed is the essence of war.

If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you are.

Der Krieg ist nichts als eine Fortsetzung des politischen Verkehrs mit Einmischung anderer Mittel. War is merely the continuation of policy with the admixture of other means.

The transition from the defensive to the offensive is one of the most delicate operations in war.

He is cautious. He ought to be. But he is NOT slow. Lee is a phenomenon. He is the only man whom I would follow blindfolded.

I don't know of any army that does more than an Israeli army does to avoid civilian casualties. But incidental and unintended casualties accompany every war.

The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities...It is best to win without fighting.

He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.

You should not go to war for the privilege of withdrawal. You need to define your objective and the outcome, and it cannot be the removal of one man.

War and preparations for war have acquired a kind of legitimacy.

The value of time, that is of being a little ahead of your opponent, often provides greater advantage than superior numbers or greater resources.

There are some who've forgotten why we have a military. It's not to promote war, it's to be prepared for peace.

Arthur Scargill is the Labour movements nearest equivalent to a First World War General.

Generals think war should be waged like the tourneys of the Middle Ages. I have no use for knights; I need revolutionaries.

I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice.

To be well prepared for war is the best guarantee of peace.

If we were building our navy, rather than reducing our navy to pre-World War I levels, China would not be thinking about increasing its navy to take over the South China Sea.