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Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.

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
Make
Exertion
Uncertainty
Climate
Elements
Danger
Four
Chance
War

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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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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Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.
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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'
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Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination. The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy's forces, is the first-born son of war. Only great and general battles can produce great results. Blood is the price of victory.
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Close combat, man to man, is plainly to be regarded as the real basis of combat.
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War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
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In war the will is directed at an animate object that reacts.
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Desperate affairs require desperate remedies.
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Blood is the price of victory
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A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy.
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The very nature of interactions is bound to make it unpredictable.
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Only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.
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Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.
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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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Knowledge must become capability.
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War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others.
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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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Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
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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.
Carl von Clausewitz