War Is Nothing But A

Where Absolute Superiority Is Not Attainable, You Must Produce A Relative One At The Decisive Point By Making Skillful Use Ofwhat You Have.

The Only Situation A Commander Can Know Fully Is His Own: His Opponent's He Can Know Only From Unreliable Intelligence.

Action In War Is Like Movement In A Resistant Element. Just As The Simplest And Most Natural Of Movements, Walking, Cannot Easily Be Performed In Water, So In War, It Is Difficult For Normal Efforts To Achieve Even Moderate Results.

The Object Of Defense Is Preservation; And Since It Is Easier To Hold Ground Than To Take It, Defense Is Easier Than Attack. But Defense Has A Passive Purpose: Preservation; And Attack A Positive One: Conquest.... 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.

It Should Be Noted That The Seeds Of Wisdom That Are To Bear Fruit In The Intellect Are Sown Less By Critical Studies And Learned Monographs Than By Insights, Broad Impressions, And Flashes Of Intuition.