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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.

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
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Dissolve
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Aesthetics
Ideas
Effect
Painters
Come
Material
Phenomena
Nothing
Rules
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Work
Materials
Architect
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Mind
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Architects

More quotes by Carl von Clausewitz

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Battles decide everything.
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A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy.
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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.
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In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.
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Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.
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Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.
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Obstinacy is a fault of temperament. Stubbornness and intolerance of contradiction result from a special kind of egotism, which elevates above everything else the pleasure of its autonomous intellect, to which others must bow.
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Tactics is the art of using troops in battle strategy is the art of using battles to win the war
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The art of war in its highest point of view is policy.
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Action in war is like movement in a resistant element. Just as the simplest and most natural of movements, walking, cannot easily be performed in water, so in war, it is difficult for normal efforts to achieve even moderate results.
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It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.
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No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy
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The best strategy is always to be very strong.
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In war the will is directed at an animate object that reacts.
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Surprise becomes effective when we suddenly face the enemy at one point with far more troops than he expected. This type of numerical superiority is quite distinct from numerical superiority in general: it is the most powerful medium in the art of war.
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Beauty cannot be defined by abscissas and ordinates neither are circles and ellipses created by their geometrical formulas.
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War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost bounds.
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A general who allows himself to be decisively defeated in an extended mountain position deserves to be court-martialled.
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Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
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War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
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