On War - Volume 1 Quotes

“If the mind is to emerge unscathed from this relentless struggle with the unforeseen, 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.”
― Carl Von Clausewitz, On War: Volume 1

“As long as the enemy is not defeated, he may defeat me; then I shall be no longer my own master; he will dictate the law to me as I did to him.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War - Volume 1

“Theory must also take into account the human element; it must accord a place to courage, to boldness, even to rashness.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War - Volume 1

“Everything is very simple in War, but the simplest thing is difficult.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War - Volume 1

“All thinking is indeed Art. Where the logician draws the line, where the premises stop which are the result of cognition—where judgment begins, there Art begins. But more than this even the perception of the mind is judgment again, and consequently Art; and at last, even the perception by the senses as well.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War - Volume 1

“If our opponent is to be made to comply with our will, we must place him in a situation which is more oppressive to him than the sacrifice which we demand; but the disadvantages of this position must naturally not be of a transitory nature, at least in appearance, otherwise the enemy, instead of yielding, will hold out, in the prospect of a change for the better.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War - Volume 1

“Although our intellect always feels itself urged towards clearness and certainty, still our mind often feels itself attracted by uncertainty. Instead of threading its way with the understanding along the narrow path of philosophical investigations and logical conclusions, in order, almost unconscious of itself, to arrive in spaces where it feels itself a stranger, and where it seems to part from all well-known objects, it prefers to remain with the imagination in the realms of chance and luck. Instead of living yonder on poor necessity, it revels here in the wealth of possibilities; animated thereby, courage then takes wings to itself, and daring and danger make the element into which it launches itself as a fearless swimmer plunges into the stream.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War - Volume 1

“PRINCIPLE is likewise such a law for action, except that it has not the formal definite meaning, but is only the spirit and sense of law in order to leave the judgment more freedom of application when the diversity of the real world cannot be laid hold of under the definite form of a law.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War - Volume 1

“Strategy can therefore never take its hand from the work for a moment.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War - Volume 1

“The errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are the worst.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War - Volume 1