War Therefore Is An Act

Friction Is The Only Concept That More Or Less Corresponds To The Factors That Distinguish Real War From War On Paper.

War Is Nothing But A Continuation Of Politics With The Admixture Of Other Means.

The Invention Of Gunpowder And The Constant Improvement Of Firearms Are Enough In Themselves To Show That The Advance Of Civilization Has Done Nothing Practical To Alter Or Deflect The Impulse To Destroy The Enemy, Which Is Central To The Very Idea Of War.

In 1793 Such A Force As No One Had Any Conception Of Made Its Appearance. War Had Again Suddenly Become An Affair Of The People, And That Of A People Numbering Thirty Millions, Every One Of Whom Regarded Himself As A Citizen Of The State... By This Participation Of The People In The War... A Whole Nation With Its Natural Weight Came Into The Scale.

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.