Polybius Quotes

I like generals. I like Napoleon. I like strategy. The majority of them are praised for mass destruction, but it's exciting to see how it comes to the mind mentally.

Strategy was first used in Athens (508 BC) to describe the art of leadership used by the ten generals on the war council. Some argue for the more creative, human side, while others argue for the more analytic side of strategy.

He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious.

No general in the midst of battle has a great discussion about what he is going to do if defeated.

Just as our peace-time system is unsuitable for war conditions, so does it tend to breed peace-time statesmen who are not too well fitted for the conduct of war. Facility in debate, ability to state a case, caution in advancing an unpopular view, compromise and procrastination are the natural qualities - I might almost say, virtues - of a political leader in time of peace. They are fatal qualities in war. Vision, daring, swiftness and consistency of decision are the very essence of victory.

The object of a general is not to fight, but to conquer: he fights enough who obtains the victory.

I am a fantastic football manager, not a hard-headed businessman.

Leadership is all about emotional intelligence. Management is taught, while leadership is experienced.

A good leader... maintains a balance between emotional drive and sound thinking.

That's all managing is: just coming up with the right questions and getting the right answers.

[T]here's a difference between confident leadership and empty-headed delusion or cheerleading. And this is a difference that many CEOs miss.

Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory: He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat: - let such a one be dismissed!

A general-in-chief should ask himself several times in the day, What if the enemy were to appear now in my front, or on my right, or my left?

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.

I think you either have to have a very strong decisive person at the top or else a really brilliant staff command.

The greatest commander is he whose intuitions most nearly happen.

An effective leader develops the ability to correctly identify the pertinent detail or details - incidentals in a market, industry or sport that might create an incremental advantage.

So there are five ways of knowing who will win. Those who know when to fight and when not to fight are victorious. Those who discern when to use many or few troops are victorious. Those whose upper and lower ranks have the same desire are victorious.

If the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds.... I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.

I wanted people who wouldn't become too worried about casualties. One always should be concerned about casualties, but the risk of incurring casualties can't be allowed to affect decisions, unless it's evident casualties will be prohibitively heavy. There may be no safe way to write this.

Any clever person can make plans for winning a war if he has no responsibility for carrying them out.

One mark of a good officer, he remembered, was the ability to make quick decisions. If they happen to be right, so much the better.

It has been said that one bad general is better than two good ones, and the saying is true if taken to mean no more than that an army is better directed by a single mind, though inferior, than by two superior ones at variance and cross-purposes with each other.

Often times the best military leaders were soldiers.