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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.

Carl von Clausewitz

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Carl von Clausewitz
Age: 51 †
Born: 1780
Born: June 1
Died: 1831
Died: November 16
Historian
Military Historian
Military Officer
Military Personnel
Military Theorist
Philosopher
Writer
Burg bei Magdeburg
War
Means
Eine
Mean
Admixture
Mit
Continuation
Als
Merely
Policy

More quotes by Carl von Clausewitz

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Architects and painters know precisely what they are about as long as they deal with material phenomena.... But when they come to the aesthetics of their work, when they aim at a particular effect on the mind or on the senses, the rules dissolve into nothing but vague ideas.
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The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.
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The invention of gunpowder and the constant improvement of firearms are enough in themselves to show that the advance of civilization has done nothing practical to alter or deflect the impulse to destroy the enemy, which is central to the very idea of war.
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We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.
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Just as some plants bear fruit only if they don't shoot up too high, so in practical arts the leaves and flowers of theory must be pruned and the plant kept close to its proper soil- experience.
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A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy.
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War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
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Desperate affairs require desperate remedies.
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Politics is the womb in which war develops.
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If we do not learn to regard a war, and the separate campaigns of which it is composed, as a chain of linked engagements each leading to the next, but instead succumb to the idea that the capture of certain geographical points or the seizure of undefended provinces are of value in themselves, we are liable to regard them as windfall profits.
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Only great and general battles can produce great results
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Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment.
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Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.
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The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.
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The difficulty of accurate recognition constitutes one of the most serious sources of friction in war, by making things appear entirely different from what one had expected.
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War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.
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In war everything is simple, but it's the simple things that are difficult.
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Knowledge must become capability.
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It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.
Carl von Clausewitz
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To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it.
Carl von Clausewitz