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Carl von Clausewitz -
War
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The general unreliability of all information presents a special problem in war: all action takes place, so to speak, in the twilight, which, like fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are. Whatever is hidden from full view in this feeble light has to be guessed at by talent, or simply left to chance. So once again for the lack of objective knowledge, one has to trust to talent or to luck.
Carl von Clausewitz
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Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war.... Countless minor incidents - the kind you can never really foresee - combine to lower the general level of performance, so that one always falls short of the intended goal....
Carl von Clausewitz
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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.
Carl von Clausewitz
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War is the realm of uncertainty; three-quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.... war is the realm of chance. No other human activity gives it greater scope; no other has such incessant and varied dealings with this intruder. Chance makes everything more uncertain and interferes with the whole course of events.
Carl von Clausewitz
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In war, more than anywhere else in the world, things happen differently from what we had expected, and look differently when near from what they did at a distance.
Carl von Clausewitz
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The state of crisis is the real war; the equilibrium is nothing but its reflex.
Carl von Clausewitz
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The closer these practical probabilities drive war toward the absolute, the more the belligerent states are involved and drawn into its vortex, the clearer appear the connections between its separate actions, and the more imperative the need not to take the first step without considering the last.
Carl von Clausewitz
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In war the will is directed at an animate object that reacts.
Carl von Clausewitz
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War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others.
Carl von Clausewitz
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The great uncertainty of all data in war is a peculiar difficulty, because all action must, to a certain extent, be planned in a mere twilight, which in addition not infrequently—like the effect of a fog or moonshine—gives to things exaggerated dimensions and unnatural appearance.
Carl von Clausewitz
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War is not merely a political act, but also a political instrument, a continuation of political relations, a carrying out of the same by other means.
Carl von Clausewitz
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War is the province of chance. in no other sphere of human activity must such a margin be left for this intruder. it increases the uncertainty of every circumstance and deranges the course of events.
Carl von Clausewitz
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Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat the enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: war is such a dangerous business that the mistakes which come from kindness are the very worst.
Carl von Clausewitz
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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.
Carl von Clausewitz
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War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.
Carl von Clausewitz
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... in the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards.
Carl von Clausewitz
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Where execution is dominant, as it is in the individual events of a war whether great or small, then intellectual factors are reduced to a minimum.
Carl von Clausewitz
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All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.
Carl von Clausewitz
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War Is Merely the Continuation of Policy by Other Means
We see, therefore, that war is not merely an act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse carried on with other means. What remains peculiar to war is simply the peculiar nature of its means.
Carl von Clausewitz
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If we read history with an open mind, we cannot fail to conclude that, among all the military virtues, the energetic conduct of war has always contributed most to glory and success.
Carl von Clausewitz
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To introduce into the philosophy of War itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity.
Carl von Clausewitz
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... only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.
Carl von Clausewitz
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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.
Carl von Clausewitz
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The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy's forces, is the first-born son of war.
Carl von Clausewitz
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War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost bounds.
Carl von Clausewitz
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Quote of the day
Eroticism is assenting to life even in death.
Georges Bataille
Carl von Clausewitz
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Born:
June 1, 1780
Died:
November 16, 1831
(aged 51)
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