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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.

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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Contradiction
Elevates
Else
Fault
Obstinacy
Everything
Intellect
Stubbornness
Must
Faults
Autonomous
Kind
Result
Egotism
Results
Intolerance
Special
Bows
Pleasure
Temperament

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Everything in strategy is very simple, but that does not mean everything is very easy.
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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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War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means.
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There are times when the utmost daring is the height of wisdom.
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Responsibility and danger do not tend to free or stimulate the average person's mind- rather the contrary but wherever they do liberate an individual's judgement and confidence we can be sure that we are in the presence of exceptional ability.
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War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.
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A conqueror is always a lover of peace.
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Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
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Every combat is the bloody and destructive measuring of the strength of forces, physical and moral whoever at the close has the greatest amount of both left is the conqueror.
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War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost bounds.
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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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The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.
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Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end.
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Men are always more inclined to pitch their estimate of the enemy's strength too high than too low, such is human nature.
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We shall not enter into any of the abstruse definitions of war used by publicists. We shall keep to the element of the thing itself, to a duel. War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale.
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In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.
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The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.
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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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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.
Carl von Clausewitz