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In trying to defend everything he defended nothing.

Frederick The Great

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Frederick The Great
Trying
Prussia
Defended
Defend
Focus
Everything
Nothing

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If soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army.
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Great advantage is drawn from knowledge of your adversary, and when you know the measure of his intelligence and character, you can use it to play on his weakness.
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It is disgusting to note the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects and the amount of money that goes out of the country in consequence. Everybody is using coffee. If possible, this must be prevented. My people must drink beer.
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It is pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised.
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Our work is to present things that are as they are.
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The more I see of men, the better I like my dog.
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Man is made for error it enters his mind naturally, and he discovers a few truths only with the greatest effort.
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I have no fault to find with those who teach geometry. That science is the only one which has not produced sects it is founded on analysis and on synthesis and on the calculus it does not occupy itself with the probable truth moreover it has the same method in every country.
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I am up and about when I am ill, and in the most appalling weather. I am on horseback when other men would be flat out on their beds, complaining. We are made for action, and activity is the sovereign remedy for all physical ills.
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The people say what they like and then I do what I like
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Neither antiquity nor any other nation has imagined a more atrocious and blasphemous absurdity than that of eating God. This is how Christians treat the autocrat of the universe.
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Little minds try to defend everything at once, but sensible people look at the main point only they parry the worst blows and stand a little hurt if thereby they avoid a greater one. If you try to hold everything, you hold nothing.
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A king is the first servant and first magistrate of the state.
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Christianity is an old metaphysical fiction, stuffed with fables, contradictions and absurdities: it was spawned in the fevered imagination of the Orientals, and then spread to our Europe, where some fanatics espoused it, where some intriguers pretended to be convinced by it and where some imbeciles actually believed it.
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No government can exist without taxation. The money must necessarily be levied on the people and the grand art consists of levying so as not to oppress.
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If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.
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Be more than you seem to be.
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Though I may not be a king in my future life, so much the better: I shall nevertheless live an active life and, on top of it, earn less ingratitude.
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Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be relied upon to endure hardships in case of another war.
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Being goal directed is not enough to conquer your enemy. To achieve your goal you need to know and be able to utilize all the resources available to you. This includes the knowledge of all those available to you as well as using the physical resources and those who control them.
Frederick The Great