If You Want Peace, Understand War.

Loss Of Hope Rather Than Loss Of Life Is What Decides The Issues Of War. But Helplessness Induces Hopelessness.

...regrettable As It May Seem To The Idealist, The Experience Of History Provides Little Warrant For The Belief That Real Progress, And The Freedom That Makes Progress Possible, Lies In Unification. For Where Unification Has Been Able To Establish Unity Of Ideas It Has Usually Ended In Uniformity, Paralysing The Growth Of New Ideas. And Where The Unification Has Merely Brought About An Artificial Or Imposed Unity, Its Irksomeness Has Led Through Discord To Disruption.

In A Campaign Against More Than One State Or Army, It Is More Fruitful To Concentrate First Against The Weaker Partner Than To Attempt The Overthrow Of The Stronger In The Belief That The Latter's Defeat Will Automatically Involve The Collapse Of The Others.

For If We Merely Take What Obviously Appears The Line Of Least Resistance, Its Obviousness Will Appeal To The Opponent Also; And This Line May No Longer Be That Of Least Resistance. In Studying The Physical Aspect, We Must Never Lose Sight Of The Psychological, And Only When Both Are Combined Is The Strategy Truly An Indirect Approach, Calculated To Dislocate The Opponent's Balance.

This High Proportion Of History's Decisive Campaigns, The Significance Of Which Is Enhanced By The Comparative Rarity Of The Direct Approach, Enforces The Conclusion That The Indirect Is By Far The Most Hopeful And Economic Form Of Strategy.