Carl von Clausewitz Quotes

The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.

War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.

War is the province of danger.

Everything in war is 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.

The difficulty of accurate recognition constitutes one of the most serious sources of friction in war… War has a way of masking the stage with scenery crudely daubed with fearsome apparitions.

War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.

War is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means.