Of All The Passions That Inspire A

The Deduction Of Effect From Cause Is Often Blocked By Some Insuperable Extrinsic Obstacle: The True Causes May Be Quite Unknown. Nowhere In Life Is This So Common As In War, Where The Facts Are Seldom Fully Known And The Underlying Motives Even Less So.

Talent And Genius Operate Outside The Rules, And Theory Conflicts With Practice.

War Is Not Merely A Political Act But A Real Political Instrument, A Continuation Of Political Intercourse, A Carrying Out Of The Same By Other Means.

Knowledge In War Is Very Simple, Being Concerned With So Few Subjects, And Only With Their Final Results At That. But This Does Not Make Its Application Easy.

Many Intelligence Reports In War Are Contradictory; Even More Are False, And Most Are Uncertain.