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Beauty cannot be defined by abscissas and ordinates neither are circles and ellipses created by their geometrical formulas.

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
Circles
Defined
Neither
Created
Beauty
Cannot
Ellipses
Geometrical
Formulas

More quotes by Carl von Clausewitz

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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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Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
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No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy
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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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The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation form their purposes.
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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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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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A general who allows himself to be decisively defeated in an extended mountain position deserves to be court-martialled.
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...as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.
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There are times when the utmost daring is the height of wisdom.
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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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War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
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War is only caused through the political intercourse of governments and nations - war is nothing but a continuation of political intercourse with an admixture of other means.
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Politics is the womb in which war develops - where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of living creatures in their embryos.
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The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.
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Blood is the price of victory
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What we should admire is the acute fulfillment of the unspoken assumptions, the smooth harmony of the whole activity, which only become evident in the final success.
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To achieve victory we must mass our forces at the hub of all power & movement. The enemy's 'Center of Gravity'
Carl von Clausewitz
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War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.
Carl von Clausewitz
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There are very few men-and they are the exceptions-who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment
Carl von Clausewitz