Quotes About Strategy In War

#1. The soundest strategy in war is to postpone operations until the moral disintegration of the enemy renders the delivery of the mortal blow both possible and easy.

Vladimir Lenin

#2. Just as Alexander wept upon learning he had no more enemies to conquer, finite players come to rue their victories unless they see them quickly challenged by new danger. A war fought to end all wars, in the strategy of finite play, only breeds universal warfare.

James P. Carse

#3. Your mind is the starting point of all war and all strategy. A mind that is easily overwhelmed by emotion, that is rooted in the past instead of the present, that cannot see the world with clarity and urgency, will create strategies that will always miss the mark.

Robert Greene

#4. Be stern in the council-chamber, [Show no weakness, and insist on your plans being ratified by the sovereign.] so that you may control the situation.

Sun Tzu

#5. The government must rethink its strategy toward the Bedouin, or else those in the area who are armed will turn it into the war that Cairo seems to be pushing for.

John R. Bradley

#6. Preemption is the right of any nation in order to preserve its National Security; however, preemptive war is a tactic, not a strategy. When used as a strategy preemption dilutes diplomacy, creates an atmosphere of distrust, and promotes regional instability.

Ellen Tauscher

#7. Growing up during the Cold War, I remember the seemingly imminent threat of nuclear war. In primary school we were taught to 'duck-and-cover' for protection. But even as children hiding under wooden desks, we recognized the inadequacies of this strategy.

Mike Quigley

#8. Whether in an advantageous position or a disadvantageous one, the opposite state should be always present to your mind.

Sun Tzu

#9. To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill

Sun Tzu

#10. The rising of birds in their flight is the sign of an ambuscade. Startled beasts indicate that a sudden attack is coming.

Sun Tzu

#11. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.

Sun Tzu

#12. 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.

Max McKeown

#13. If there is disturbance in the camp, the general's authority is weak.

Sun Tzu

#14. 5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

Sun Tzu

#15. Bush's faith in the rightness of his strategy in the broader war is deep-seated. It is a product of faith.

Rich Lowry

#16. [To the House of Representatives before casting the only vote against allowing George W. Bush to use 'all necesary and appropriate force' in response to 9/11:] We must be careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target. We cannot repeat past mistakes.

Barbara Lee

#17. Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy's purpose.

Sun Tzu

#18. Thus those skilled in war subdue the enemy's army without battle ... They conquer by strategy.

Sun Tzu

#19. When an invading force crosses a river in its onward march, do not advance to meet it in mid-stream. It will be best to let half the army get across, and then deliver your attack.

Sun Tzu

#20. The author points out that novices to total war, and this Hitler and the British press have in common, overreact to daily events and lose sight of overall strategy.

William Manchester

#21. Throughout the ages, effective results in war have rarely been attained unless the
approach has had such indirectness as to ensure the opponent's unreadyness to meet it.
The indirectness has usually been physical, and always psychological.

Liddell Hart

#22. The history of the failure of war can almost be summed up in two words: too late.

Douglas MacArthur

#23. There are not more than five primary colors (blue, yellow, red, white, and black), yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.

Sun Tzu

#24. Supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.

Sun Tzu

#25. Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.

Sun Tzu

#26. If, on the other hand, in the midst of difficulties we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune.

Sun Tzu

#27. Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise; for the result is waste of time and general stagnation.

Sun Tzu

#28. It's very hard to understand just what our strategy is in Syria, frankly, and on Iraq that this is Iraq's war, that the role of the United States is to help Iraq, to arm, train, support, provide air support, but this has to be Iraq's war.

David Ignatius

#29. In strategy the longest way round is often the shortest way there- a direct approach to the object exhausts the attacker and hardens the resistance by compression, whereas an indirect approach loosens the defender's hold by upsetting his balance.

B.H. Liddell Hart

#30. 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.

Tom Peters

#31. If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him. Though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.

Sun Tzu

#32. Conform to the enemy's tactics until a favorable opportunity offers; then come forth and engage in a battle that shall prove decisive.

Sun Tzu

#33. When you have attained the way of strategy there will be nothing that you cannot understand. You will see the way in everything.

Miyamoto Musashi

#34. When your army has crossed the border, you should burn your boats and bridges, in order to make it clear to everybody that you have no hankering after home.

Sun Tzu

#35. When one treats people with benevolence, justice, and righteoousness, and reposes confidence in them, the army will be united in mind and all will be happy to serve their leaders'.

Sun Tzu

#36. In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

#37. In the 1920s, we thought the problems associated with alcohol could be solved by police and jails. Prohibition taught us we were wrong. The strategy of the present drug war is Prohibition redux.

Rodney S. Quinn

#38. In Washington, D.C., in 2006, Democrats had long since given up on the war in Iraq in terms of any tangible political support for it. The new factor was the Republicans were beginning to give up as well, and they were truly challenging the strategy and the lack of success.

Jack Keane

#39. The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.

Sun Tzu

#40. It is of the greatest important in this world that a man should know himself, and the measure of his own strength and means; and he who knows that he has not a genius for fighting must learn how to govern by the arts of peace.

Niccolo Machiavelli

#41. You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended.

Sun Tzu