The Best Form Of Defense Is Attack.

Everything In War Is Very Simple, But The Simplest Thing Is Difficult. The Difficulties Accumulate And End By Producing A Kind Of Friction That Is Inconceivable Unless One Has Experienced War. ... Countless Minor Incidents - The Kind You Can Never Really Foresee - Combine To Lower The General Level Of Performance, So That One Always Falls Short Of The Intended Goal.

Only The Element Of Chance Is Needed To Make War A Gamble, And That Element Is Never Absent.

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.

To Be Practical, Any Plan Must Take Account Of The Enemy's Power To Frustrate It.

We Must Evaluate The Political Sympathies Of Other States And The Effect War May Have On Them. To Assess These Things In All Their Ramifications And Diversity Is Plainly A Colossal Task. Rapid And Correct Appraisal Of Them Clearly Calls For The Intuition Of A Genius; To Master All This Complex Mass By Sheer Methodical Examination Is Obviously Impossible. Bonaparte Was Quite Right When He Said That Newton Himself Would Quail Before The Algebraic Problems It Could Pose.