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An army should always be so distributed that its parts can aid each other and combine to produce the maximum possible concentration of force at one place, while the minimum force necessary is used elsewhere to prepare the success of the concentration.

B. H. Liddell Hart

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B. H. Liddell Hart
Age: 74 †
Born: 1895
Born: October 31
Died: 1970
Died: January 29
Historian
Journalist
Military Historian
Writer
Paris
France
Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart
Basil Henry Liddell Hart
Military
Prepare
Possible
Elsewhere
Success
Concentration
Force
Aids
Place
Parts
Distributed
Used
Army
Combine
Always
Necessary
Maximum
Produce
Minimum

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In reality, it si more fruitful to wound than to kill. While the dead man lies still, counting only one man less, the wounded man is a progressive drain upon his side.
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The effect to be sought is the dislocation of the opponent's mind and dispositions - such an effect is the true gauge of an indirect approach.
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No man can exactly calculate the capacity of human genius and stupidity, nor the incapacity of will.
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A complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.
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The more usual reason for adopting a strategy of limited aim is that of awaiting a change in the balance of force ... The essential condition of such a strategy is that the drain on him should be disproportionately greater than on oneself.
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Guerrilla war is a kind of war waged by the few but dependent on the support of many.
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For even the best of peace training is more theoretical than practical experience ... indirect practical experience may be the more valuable because infinitely wider.
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The urge to gain release from tension by action is a precipitating cause of war.
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With growing experience, all skillful commanders sought to profit by the power of the defensive, even when on the offensive.
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The downfall of civilized states tends to come not from the direct assaults of foes, but from internal decay combined with the consequences of exhaustion in war.
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The theory of the indirect approach operates on the line of least expectation.
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The most effective indirect approach is one that lures or startles the opponent into a false move - so that, as in ju-jitsu, his own effort is turned into the lever of his overthrow.
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It is only to clear from history that states rarely keep faith with each other, save in so far (and so long) as their promises seem to them to combine with their interests.
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Air Power is, above all, a psychological weapon - and only short-sighted soldiers, too battle-minded, underrate the importance of psychological factors in war.
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The military weapon is but one of the means that serve the purposes of war: one out of the assortment which grand strategy can employ.
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The unexpected cannot guarantee success, but it guarantees the best chance of success.
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Direct pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent.
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As has happened so often in history, victory had bred a complacency and fostered an orthodoxy which led to defeat in the next war.
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Loss of hope rather than loss of life is what decides the issues of war. But helplessness induces hopelessness.
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The implied threat of using nuclear weapons to curb guerrillas was as absurd as to talk of using a sledge hammer to ward off a swarm of mosquitoes.
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