Carl von Clausewitz
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Carl von Clausewitz (June 1, 1780 - November 16, 1831) was a Prussian general and influential military theorist. He is most famous for his military treatise Vom Krieg, translated into English as On War.
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On War (1832)
- All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.
- Book 5
- Surprise becomes effective when we suddenly face the enemy at one point with far more troops than he expected. This type of numerical superiority is quite distinct from numerical superiority in general: it is the most powerful medium in the art of war.
- Book 6, Chapter 2
- If defense is the stronger form of war, yet has a negative object, it follows that it should be used only so long as weakness compels, and be abandoned as soon as we are strong enough to pursue a positive object.
- Book 6, Chapter 1
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Attributed
- Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
- In such dangerous things as war the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are the worst things.
- In war the result is never final.
- Politics is the womb in which war develops - where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of living creatures in their embryos.
- The Conqueror is always a lover of peace: he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.
- Theory should be study, not doctrine.
- To introduce into the philosophy of war a principle of moderation would be an absurdity - war is an act of violence pushed to its utmost bounds.
- War is an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.
- War is merely the continuation of policy by other means.
- War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale.
- War is such a dangerous business that the mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.
- War is very simple, but in War the simplest things become very difficult.
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External links
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