[the Cause Of Inaction In War] ...

The General Unreliability Of All Information Presents A Special Problem In War: All Action Takes Place, So To Speak, In The Twilight, Which, Like Fog Or Moonlight, Often Tends To Make Things Seem Grotesque And Larger Than They Really Are. Whatever Is Hidden From Full View In This Feeble Light Has To Be Guessed At By Talent, Or Simply Left To Chance. So Once Again For The Lack Of Objective Knowledge, One Has To Trust To Talent Or To Luck.

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.

Responsibility And Danger Do Not Tend To Free Or Stimulate The Average Person's Mind- Rather The Contrary; But Wherever They Do Liberate An Individual's Judgement And Confidence We Can Be Sure That We Are In The Presence Of Exceptional Ability.

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

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