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.
Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding.
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.
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.
In war, the chief incalculable is the human will.
The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out.
it is not only unfair but disgustingly cruel that the mother is always held responsible for the illegitimate child, while the father goes scot-free.