To Secure Peace Is To

The Majority Of People Are Timid By Nature, And That Is Why They Constantly Exaggerate Danger. All Influences On The Military Leader, Therefore, Combine To Give Him A False Impression Of His Opponent's Strength, And From This Arises A New Source Of Indecision.

In War The Will Is Directed At An Animate Object That Reacts.

War Is...a Trinity Of Violence, Chance, And Reason.

To Discover How Much Of Our Resources Must Be Mobilized For War, We Must First Examine Our Political Aim And That Of The Enemy. We Must Gauge The Strength And Situation Of The Opposite State. We Must Gauge The Character And Abilities Of Its Government And People And Do The Same In Regard To Our Own. Finally, We Must Evaluate The Political Sympathies Of Other States And The Effect The War May Have On Them.

After We Have Thought Out Everything Carefully In Advance And Have Sought And Found Without Prejudice The Most Plausible Plan, We Must Not Be Ready To Abandon It At The Slightest Provocation. Should This Certainty Be Lacking, We Must Tell Ourselves That Nothing Is Accomplished In Warfare Without Daring; That The Nature Of War Certainly Does Not Let Us See At All Times Where We Are Going; That What Is Probable Will Always Be Probable Though At The Moment It May Not Seem So; And Finally, That We Cannot Be Readily Ruined By A Single Error, If We Have Made Reasonable Preparations.