No One Starts A War--or Rather, No

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.

A Prince Or General Can Best Demonstrate His Genius By Managing A Campaign Exactly To Suit His Objectives And His Resources, Doing Neither Too Much Nor Too Little.

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.

[...] To Introduce Into The Philosophy Of War Itself A Principle Of Moderation Would Be An Absurdity

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.