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Self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment.

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
Pressure
Moment
Moments
Best
Self
Pressures
Defence
Reliance

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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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In War, the young soldier is very apt to regard unusual fatigues as the consquence of faults, mistakes, and embarrassment in the conduct of the whole, and to become distressed and depondent as a consequence. This would not happen if he had been prepared for this beforehand by exercises in peace.
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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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To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it.
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In war, while everything is simple, even the simplest thing is difficult. Difficulties accumulate and produce frictions which no one can comprehend who has not seen war.
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There is only one decisive victory: the last.
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War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
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Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.
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Blood is the price of victory
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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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Only great and general battles can produce great results
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The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.
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In war the will is directed at an animate object that reacts.
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The best strategy is always to be very strong.
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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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Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations this serves more or less as a substitute for hatred between individuals.
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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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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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A conqueror is always a lover of peace.
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In War more than anywhere else in the world things happen differently to what we had expected, and look differently when near, to what they did at a distance.
Carl von Clausewitz