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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

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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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Never
Standards
Judgment
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Theory
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Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.
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The best strategy is always to be very strong.
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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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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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Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.
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Blood is the price of victory
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Tactics is the art of using troops in battle strategy is the art of using battles to win the war
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Close combat, man to man, is plainly to be regarded as the real basis of combat.
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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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Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
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The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.
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Only great and general battles can produce great results
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Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
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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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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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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 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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Knowledge must become capability.
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With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater the margin that can be left for accidents.
Carl von Clausewitz