Warfare Strategy Quotes

The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.

The Spartans do not inquire how many the enemy are, but where they are.

In warfare, first lay plans which will ensure victory, and then lead your army to battle; if you will not begin with stratagem but rely on brute strength alone, victory will no longer be assured.

Artillery is more essential to cavalry than to infantry, because cavalry has no fire for its defence, but depends on the sabre.

Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy... use the conquered foe to augment one's own strength.

Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards... Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.

Foreigners can only fight with success in the summer. We can fight during any of the four seasons, so we have the weather on our side.

Our only weapons in this war of your lifetime are the weapons of the mind.

The whole idea in war is to fight as unfairly and disproportionately as possible.

Cavalry is useful before, during, and after the battle.

You cannot tell the enemy you're going to leave and expect the enemy to not - and expect to succeed. I mean, that's just a fundamental of warfare.

The Lacedaemonians fought a memorable battle; they made it quite clear that they were the experts, and that they were fighting against amateurs.

Desert Storm created the pattern for the American way of war that eventually prevailed in Kosovo. America learned from Vietnam that unilateral use of force eventually forfeits international legitimacy and domestic support. Desert Storm demonstrated the political necessity of coalition warfare.

The war on terror, I believe, will be waged by effective intelligence and police work and cruise missiles.

Success in war depends upon the golden rule of war.

Any army which does not train to use all the weapons, all the means and methods of warfare that the enemy possesses, or may possess, is behaving in an unwise or even criminal manner. This applies to politics even more than it does to the art of war.

One mark of a great soldier is that he fight on his own terms or fights not at all.

In reality, it si more fruitful to wound than to kill. While the dead man lies still, counting only one man less, the wounded man is a progressive drain upon his side.

Even in waging war, cherish the spirit of peace-maker; that, by conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages of peace.

Without a doubt, psychological warfare has proven its right to a place of dignity in our military arsenal.

Therefore a victorious army first wins and then seeks battle; a defeated army first battles and then seeks victory.

I do think hubris played a role here as well, the belief that the Lusitania was too big and too fast to ever be caught by any submarine, and that, in any case, no U-boat commander would think to attack the ship because to do so would violate the long-held rules governing naval warfare against merchant shipping.

Foreign nations have begun to include information warfare in their war college curricula with respect to both defensive and offensive applications.

Unfortunately, the historical record of failure to prevent strategic surprises is overwhelming. In conventional warfare, victims usually misread the evidence or miscalculate their responses, and they can suffer surprise even when their intelligence collection systems and defensive preparations are impressive.

We cannot kill or capture our way out of an industrial-strength insurgency.