Carl von Clausewitz's Quotes

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.

Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.

It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.

Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.

A conqueror is always a lover of peace.

Politics is the womb in which war develops.

Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.

The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation form their purposes.

War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

War is the continuation of politics by other means.

War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.

War is the province of danger.

If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.

All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.

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.