No Other Human Activity Is So Continuously

No Other Human Activity Is So Continuously Or Universally Bound Up With Chance. And Through The Element Of Chance, Guesswork And Luck Come To Play A Great Part In War.

War Is Merely A Continuation Of Politics.

Knowing Is Different From Doing And Therefore Theory Must Never Be Used As Norms For A Standard, But Merely As Aids To Judgment.

After We Have Thought Out Everything Carefully In Advance And Have Sought And Found Without Prejudice The Most Plausible Plan, We Must Not Be Ready To Abandon It At The Slightest Provocation. Should This Certainty Be Lacking, We Must Tell Ourselves That Nothing Is Accomplished In Warfare Without Daring; That The Nature Of War Certainly Does Not Let Us See At All Times Where We Are Going; That What Is Probable Will Always Be Probable Though At The Moment It May Not Seem So; And Finally, That We Cannot Be Readily Ruined By A Single Error, If We Have Made Reasonable Preparations.

If We Read History With An Open Mind, We Cannot Fail To Conclude That, Among All The Military Virtues, The Energetic Conduct Of War Has Always Contributed Most To Glory And Success.