Quotes About Tactics

If you see you're going to get popped in a fair fight, don't fight fair.

First with the head, and then with the heart, that way small can beat big.

More fights are lost by underestimating your opponent than by any other way.

Knowing when to fight is just as important as knowing how.

When you are facing superior strength, you must use your wits.

Information is the coin of war.

Surprise was their greatest weapon. He didn't want to give it up without a very good reason.

Like it or not, the aggressor makes the rules. You must play by them, or you will surely die by them.

Whut's the plan, Rob? said one of them. OK lads, this is what we'll do. As soon as we see somethin', we'll attack it. Right? The best plans are the simplest ones ...

Speak softly and employ a huge man with a crowbar.

Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be.

The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.

Peace?' said Vetinari. 'Ah, yes, defined as period of time to allow for preparation for the next war.

It is a long-cherished tradition among a certain type of military thinker that huge casualties are the main thing. If they are on the other side then this is a valuable bonus.

Cats are like witches. They don't fight to kill, but to win. There is a difference. There's no point in killing an opponent. That way, they won't know they've lost, and to be a real winner you have to have an opponent who is beaten and knows it. There's no triumph over a corpse, but a beaten opponent, who will remain beaten every day of the remainder of their sad and wretched life, is something to treasure.

It's like chess, you know. The Queen saves the King.

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.

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

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

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.