110+ Carl von Clausewitz Quotes On War, Strategy And Warfare

Carl von Clausewitz was a Prussian military historian, theorist, and soldier who is best known for his book On War, which is considered one of the most important works of military strategy ever written. He is known for his concept of "absolute war," which argued that war should be viewed as a total social phenomenon and not just a series of battles. Clausewitz's ideas have been influential in the development of military strategy and tactics in the modern era. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Carl von Clausewitz on war, strategy, warfare.

Top 10 Carl Von Clausewitz Quotes

1. The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.
2. To secure peace is to prepare for war.
3. Tactics is the art of using troops in battle; strategy is the art of using battles to win the war
4. To achieve victory we must mass our forces at the hub of all power & movement. The enemy's 'Center of Gravity'
5. Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end.
6. Knowledge must become capability.
7. Self-reliance is the best defence against the pressures of the moment.
8. Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity
9. Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.
10. The best strategy is always to be very strong.

Carl Von Clausewitz Short Quotes

• The Conqueror is always a lover of peace: he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.
• Blood is the price of victory
• Only great and general battles can produce great results
• A conqueror is always a lover of peace.
• War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost bounds.
• Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense.
• The very nature of interactions is bound to make it unpredictable.
• War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means.
• Only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.
• War is merely a continuation of politics.

Carl von Clausewitz Quotes About War

War is an act of force, and to the application of that force there is no limit. Each of the adversaries forces the hand of the other, and a reciprocal action results which in theory can have no limit. — Carl von Clausewitz

In war, where imperfect intelligence, the threat of a catastrophe, and the number of accidents are incomparably greater than any other human endeavor, the amount of missed opportunities, so to speak, is therefore bound to be greater. — Carl von Clausewitz

Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions and its own peculiar preconceptions. — Carl von Clausewitz

War is...a trinity of violence, chance, and reason. — Carl von Clausewitz

There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war. — Carl von Clausewitz

Der Krieg ist nichts als eine Fortsetzung des politischen Verkehrs mit Einmischung anderer Mittel. War is merely the continuation of policy with the admixture of other means. — Carl von Clausewitz

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. — Carl von Clausewitz

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. — Carl von Clausewitz

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination. The bloody solution of the crisis, the effort for the destruction of the enemy's forces, is the first-born son of war. Only great and general battles can produce great results. Blood is the price of victory. — Carl von Clausewitz

War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will. — Carl von Clausewitz

Carl von Clausewitz Quotes About Theory

Talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice. — Carl von Clausewitz

Just as some plants bear fruit only if they don't shoot up too high, so in practical arts the leaves and flowers of theory must be pruned and the plant kept close to its proper soil- experience. — Carl von Clausewitz

Knowing is different from doing and therefore theory must never be used as norms for a standard, but merely as aids to judgment. — Carl von Clausewitz

Carl von Clausewitz Famous Quotes And Sayings

Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an 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

We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea. — Carl von Clausewitz

Responsibility and danger do not tend to free or stimulate the average person's mind- rather the contrary; but wherever they do liberate an individual's judgement and confidence we can be sure that we are in the presence of exceptional ability. — Carl von Clausewitz

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. — Carl von Clausewitz

Whenever armed forces . . . are used, the idea of combat must be present. . . . The end for which a soldier is recruited, clothed, armed, and trained, the whole object of his sleeping, eating, drinking, and marching is simply that he should fight at the right place and the right time. — Carl von Clausewitz

Any complex activity, if it is to be carried on with any degree of virtuosity, calls for appropriate gifts of intellect and temperament. If they are outstanding and reveal themselves in exceptional achievements, their possessor is called a 'genius'. — Carl von Clausewitz

Where absolute superiority is not attainable, you must produce a relative one at the decisive point by making skillful use ofwhat you have. — Carl von Clausewitz

The more physical the activity, the less the difficulties will be. The more the activity becomes intellectual and turns into motives which exercise a determining influence on the commander's will, the more the difficulties will increase. — Carl von Clausewitz

Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them. — Carl von Clausewitz

Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien. — Carl von Clausewitz

Obstinacy is a fault of temperament. Stubbornness and intolerance of contradiction result from a special kind of egotism, which elevates above everything else the pleasure of its autonomous intellect, to which others must bow. — Carl von Clausewitz

[...] to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity — Carl von Clausewitz

...as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective. — Carl von Clausewitz

War is the province of chance. In no sphere of human activity is such a margin to be left for this intruder. It increases the uncertainty of every circumstance, and deranges the course of events. — Carl von Clausewitz

As each man's strength gives out, as it no longer responds to his will, the inertia of the whole gradually comes to rest on the commander's will alone. The ardor of his spirit must rekindle the flame of purpose in all others; his inward fire must revive their hope. — Carl von Clausewitz

This tremendous friction which cannot, as in mechanics, be reduced to a few points, is everywhere in contact with chance, and brings about effects that cannot be measured just because they are largely due to chance. — Carl von Clausewitz

Every combat is the bloody and destructive measuring of the strength of forces, physical and moral; whoever at the close has the greatest amount of both left is the conqueror. — Carl von Clausewitz

Architects and painters know precisely what they are about as long as they deal with material phenomena.... But when they come to the aesthetics of their work, when they aim at a particular effect on the mind or on the senses, the rules dissolve into nothing but vague ideas. — Carl von Clausewitz

No other human activity is so continuously or universally bound up with chance. And through the element of chance, guesswork and luck come to play a great part in war. — Carl von Clausewitz

Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero. — Carl von Clausewitz

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. — Carl von Clausewitz

There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom. — Carl von Clausewitz

We shall not enter into any of the abstruse definitions of war used by publicists. We shall keep to the element of the thing itself, to a duel. War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale. — Carl von Clausewitz

Boldness becomes rarer, the higher the rank. — Carl von Clausewitz

No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy — Carl von Clausewitz

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

In War, the young soldier is very apt to regard unusual fatigues as the consquence of faults, mistakes, and embarrassment in the conduct of the whole, and to become distressed and depondent as a consequence. This would not happen if he had been prepared for this beforehand by exercises in peace. — Carl von Clausewitz

What we should admire is the acute fulfillment of the unspoken assumptions, the smooth harmony of the whole activity, which only become evident in the final success. — Carl von Clausewitz

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

A general who allows himself to be decisively defeated in an extended mountain position deserves to be court-martialled. — Carl von Clausewitz

The side that feels the lesser urge for peace will naturally get the better bargain. — Carl von Clausewitz

In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards. — Carl von Clausewitz

[The cause of inaction in war] ... is the imperfection of human perception and judgment which is more pronounced in war than anywhere else. We hardly know accurately our own situation at any particular moment while the enemy's, which is concealed from us, must be deduced from very little evidence. — Carl von Clausewitz

War should never be thought of as something autonomous, but always as an instrument of policy. — Carl von Clausewitz

War is politics by other means. — Carl von Clausewitz

Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of savagery and civilization, but in their attendant circumstances, institutions, and so forth. The difference, therefore, does not operate in every sense, but it does in most of them. Even the most civilized peoples, in short, can be fired with passionate hatred for each other. — Carl von Clausewitz

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

War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. — Carl von Clausewitz

Men are always more inclined to pitch their estimate of the enemy's strength too high than too low, such is human nature. — Carl von Clausewitz

The best form of defense is attack. — Carl von Clausewitz

In war, while everything is simple, even the simplest thing is difficult. Difficulties accumulate and produce frictions which no one can comprehend who has not seen war. — Carl von Clausewitz

War is nothing but a duel on a larger scale. — Carl von Clausewitz

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. — Carl von Clausewitz

The art of war in its highest point of view is policy. — Carl von Clausewitz

The more a leader is in the habit of demanding from his men, the surer he will be that his demands will be answered. — Carl von Clausewitz

In War more than anywhere else in the world things happen differently to what we had expected, and look differently when near, to what they did at a distance. — Carl von Clausewitz

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together. — Carl von Clausewitz

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

War is only caused through the political intercourse of governments and nations - war is nothing but a continuation of political intercourse with an admixture of other means. — Carl von Clausewitz

In short, absolute, so-called mathematical, factors never find a firm basis in military calculations. From the very start, there is an interplay of possibilities, probabilities, good luck and bad, that weaves its way throughout the length and breadth of the tapestry. In the whole range of human activities, war most closely resembles a game of cards. — Carl von Clausewitz

The heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris. — Carl von Clausewitz

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

The more a general is accustomed to place heavy demands on his soldiers, the more he can depend on their response. — Carl von Clausewitz

Criticism exists only to recognize the truth, not to act as judge. — Carl von Clausewitz

The world has a way of undermining complex plans. This is particularly true in fast moving environments. A fast moving environment can evolve more quickly than a complex plan can be adapted to it. By the time you have adapted, the target has changed. — Carl von Clausewitz

Desperate affairs require desperate remedies. — Carl von Clausewitz

Knowledge in war is very simple, being concerned with so few subjects, and only with their final results at that. But this does not make its application easy. — Carl von Clausewitz

Rather than comparing [war] to art we could more accurately compare it to commerce, which is also a conflict of human interests and activities; and it is still closer to politics, which in turn may be considered as a kind of commerce on a larger scale. — Carl von Clausewitz

With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater the margin that can be left for accidents. — Carl von Clausewitz

The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish ... the kind of war on which they are embarking. — Carl von Clausewitz

Lastly, 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 unfrequently — like the effect of a fog or moonshine — gives to things exaggerated dimensions and an unnatural appearance. — Carl von Clausewitz

Whoever does great things with small means has successfully reached the goal. — Carl von Clausewitz

Friction is the only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper. — Carl von Clausewitz

By 'intelligence' we mean every sort of information about the enemy and his country - the basis, in short, of our own plans and operations. — Carl von Clausewitz

Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. — Carl von Clausewitz

To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy's power to frustrate it. — Carl von Clausewitz

Boldness will be at a disadvantage only in an encounter with deliberate caution, which may be considered bold in its own right, and is certainly just as powerful and effective; but such cases are rare. — Carl von Clausewitz

It is paltry philosophy if in the old-fashioned way one lays down rules and principles in total disregard of moral values . As soon as these appear one regards them as exceptions, which gives them a certain scientific status, and thus makes them into rules. Or again one may appeal to genius , which is above all rules; which amounts to admitting that rules are not only made for idiots , but are idiotic in themselves. — Carl von Clausewitz

Modern wars are seldom fought without hatred between nations; this serves more or less as a substitute for hatred between individuals. — Carl von Clausewitz

A certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy. — Carl von Clausewitz

In war everything is simple, but it's the simple things that are difficult. — Carl von Clausewitz

No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it. — Carl von Clausewitz

War is the province of danger. — Carl von Clausewitz

The only situation a commander can know fully is his own: his opponent's he can know only from unreliable intelligence. — Carl von Clausewitz

Battles decide everything. — Carl von Clausewitz

War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others. — Carl von Clausewitz

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

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

Life Lessons by Carl von Clausewitz

1. Carl von Clausewitz's work emphasizes the importance of understanding the political context in which warfare takes place, as well as the need to understand the psychological and emotional aspects of war.
2. He also stresses the importance of having a clear objective and strategy in order to achieve success in warfare.
3. Lastly, Clausewitz emphasizes the need for flexibility and adaptability in order to respond to changing circumstances and the unpredictability of war.