Carl von Clausewitz Quotes

Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.

We must either reduce the number of our engagements or increase the number of our troops.

The battle is fought and decided by the quartermasters, long before the shooting begins.

The success of our surprise attack on Pearl Harbor will prove to be the Waterloo of the war to follow. For this reason the Imperial Navy is massing the cream of its strength in ships and planes to assure success.

You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.

Logistics is the ball and chain of armored warfare.

Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

The eventual place the American army should take on the western front was to a large extent influenced by the vital question of communication and supply.

If men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.

If was, increased by a lack of railways in Russia - for bringing up supplies to our advancing troops.

Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one; it is man and not materials that counts.

I can make more generals, but horses cost money.

The German Air Force was not sufficient to protect the sea crossing on its own. While the leading part of the forces might have landed, there was the danger that they might be cut off from supplies and reinforcements.

The public relations phases of this campaign call for the same careful planning and strategy as you and your staff employed in setting up the invasion of Normandy, and the same careful planning that we, in our business, employ in order to insure the successful introduction to the public of a new product or service.

If you contemplate some enterprise against the enemy, the commissary must scrape together all the beer and brandy that can be found so that the army does not lack either …

War room

In my day, we had mastered high-intensity conflict, which is why I think we were so successful in Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and then eventually the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Strategy is the most important department of the art of war, and strategical skill is the highest and rarest function of military genius.

He that makes a good war makes a good peace.

The art of the indirect approach can only be mastered, and its full scope appreciated, by study of and reflection upon the whole history of war. But we can at least crystallize the lessons into two simple maxims- one negative, the other positive. The first is that, in face of the overwhelming evidence of history, no general is justified in launching his troops to a direct attack upon an enemy firmly in position. The second, that instead of seeking to upset the enemy's equilibrium by one's attack, it must be upset before a real attack is, or can be successfully launched

Logistics comprises the means and arrangements which work out the plans of strategy and tactics. Strategy decides where to act; logistics brings the troops to this point.

Success in war depends upon the golden rule of war.

I have every confidence in the ultimate success of our joint cause; but success in modern war requires something more than courage and a willingness to die: it requires careful preparation.

The secret of war lies in the communications.