Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding.

No man can exactly calculate the capacity of human genius and stupidity, nor the incapacity of will.

Guerrilla war is a kind of war waged by the few but dependent on the support of many.

Every action is seen to fall into one of three main categories, guarding, hitting, or moving. Here, then, are the elements of combat, whether in war or pugilism.

The higher level of grand strategy [is] that of conducting war with a far-sighted regard to the state of the peace that will follow.

For the spread and endurance of an idea the originator is dependent on the self-development of the receivers and transmitters.

In the case of a state that is seeking not conquest but the maintenance of its security, the aim is fulfilled if the threat is removed - if the enemy is led to abandon his purpose.

The search for the truth for truth's sake is the mark of the historian.

The most effective indirect approach is one that lures or startles the opponent into a false move - so that, as in ju-jitsu, his own effort is turned into the lever of his overthrow.

The military weapon is but one of the means that serve the purposes of war: one out of the assortment which grand strategy can employ.

Loss of hope rather than loss of life is what decides the issues of war. But helplessness induces hopelessness.

A complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.

For whoever habitually suppresses the truth in the interests of tact will produce a deformity from the womb of his thought.

The unexpected cannot guarantee success, but it guarantees the best chance of success.

War is always a matter of doing evil in the hope that good may come of it.

The theory of the indirect approach operates on the line of least expectation.

Direct pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent.

If you want peace, understand war.

The most dangerous error is failure to recognize our own tendency to error.