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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.

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
Enough
Enemy
Practical
Show
Central
Idea
Improvement
Deflect
War
Impulse
Gunpowder
Shows
Invention
Firearms
Ideas
Destroy
Alter
Nothing
Constant
Advance
Done
Civilization
Practicals

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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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In 1793 such a force as no one had any conception of made its appearance. War had again suddenly become an affair of the people, and that of a people numbering thirty millions, every one of whom regarded himself as a citizen of the State... By this participation of the people in the war... a whole Nation with its natural weight came into the scale.
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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 the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.
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Close combat, man to man, is plainly to be regarded as the real basis of combat.
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We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.
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Desperate affairs require desperate remedies.
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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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Only great and general battles can produce great results
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Self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment.
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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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Blood is the price of victory
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The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.
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Battles decide everything.
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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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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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The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris.
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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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Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
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It should be noted that the seeds of wisdom that are to bear fruit in the intellect are sown less by critical studies and learned monographs than by insights, broad impressions, and flashes of intuition.
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