Quotes On War Strategy

#1. The two-war strategy was a product of the cold war, when we had to have the ability to fight the Russians on the plains of Europe and fight the Chinese on the Korean peninsula at the same time. That costs an awful lot of money.

Joe Klein

#2. The two-war strategy is just a marketing device to justify a high [military] budget.

Merrill McPeak

#3. What worries me is that I am not sure any of the Republicans, or any Democrat, is ready to 'go to the mats.' And, ergo, I am concerned that our current leaders are simply incapable of creating a winning war strategy.

Rick Elkin

#4. 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

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

Sun Tzu

#6. Standing on the defensive indicates insufficient strength; attacking, a superabundance of strength.

Sun Tzu

#7. 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

Sun Tzu

#8. Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win

Sun Tzu

#9. 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

#10. Well, God does not mean for us to be passive. He means for us to fight the fight of faith - the fight for joy. And the central strategy is to preach the gospel to yourself. This is war. Satan is preaching for sure. If we remain passive, we surrender the field to him.

John Piper

#11. 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

#12. 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

#13. 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

#14. War is more than battles, and battles are more than violence.

Lance Conrad

#15. 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

#16. 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

#17. To be a good reporter, writing about war, you have to write about the people. It's not about the tanks or the RPGs or military strategy. It's always about the effect war has on civilians, on society, and how it disrupts and destroys lives.

Janine Di Giovanni

#18. The doctrine of "exit strategy" fundamentally misunderstands the nature of war and, more generally, the nature of historical action. for the knowledge of the end is not given to us at the beginning.

Leon Wieseltier

#19. Great results, can be achieved with small forces.

Sun Tzu

#20. 12
Lose Battles, But Win The War: Grand Strategy
Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the present battle and calculating ahead. Focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it.

Robert Greene

#21. If there is a Way involving the spirit of not being defeated, to help oneself and gain honour, it is the Way of Strategy.

Miyamoto Musashi

#22. When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

Sun Tzu

#23. 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

#24. Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will.

Sun Tzu

#25. We run a danger of trying to say the casualties are less than other wars or more than expected. It's just everybody matters, every person matters, and what really matters is having the strategy and the will to make sure any death is honored by achieving an objective.

George W. Bush

#26. To conquer the enemy without resorting to war is the most desirable. The highest form of generalship is to conquer the enemy by strategy.

Sun Tzu

#27. Risk is the factor of a stratagem measured by what man is powerless to control.

Mike Norton

#28. 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

#29. If you aren't preparing for life like a war, you'll end up living like a prisoner of war.

Sharad Vivek Sagar

#30. A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish and inclined to return.

Sun Tzu

#31. A war without a strategy cannot be won. Then it is merely a battle where more lives are lost than necessary.

Jennifer Megan Varnadore

#32. We learned that a former prisoner of war had more to teach us about what it takes to find a path to greatness than most books on corporate strategy.

James C. Collins

#33. Do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat

Sun Tzu

#34. The art of war is the art of deception.

Sun Tzu

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

Douglas MacArthur

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

George Stillman Hillard

#37. 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

#38. Camouflage doesn't help when the other guy is willing to defoliate the whole jungle.

Andrew Vachss

#39. 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

#40. 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

#41. When the outlook is bright, bring it before their eyes; but tell them nothing when the situation is gloomy.

Sun Tzu

#42. He wins his battles by making no mistakes.
Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.

Sun Tzu

#43. So long as victory can be attained, stupid haste is preferable to clever dilatoriness.

Sun Tzu

#44. A weapon is merely a weapon, nothing more. What matters is how you use it.

Kaoru Kurimoto

#45. If his forces are united, separate them.

Sun Tzu

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

Dwight D. Eisenhower

#47. You've remained on the battleground, center stage, experiencing life and, what's more important, experiencing yourself experiencing it. You haven't been reduced to a logistical strategy for somebody else's life-war.

Tom Robbins

#48. 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

#49. The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

Sun Tzu

#50. Secretary of the treasury Albert Gallatin is accused of treason by war enthusiasts merely for suggesting budget adjustments to pay for war measures.

Donald R. Hickey

#51. Thirdly, the gentleman warrior, carrying the weaponry of his way. The way of the warrior is to master the virtue of his weapons. If a gentleman dislikes strategy he will not appreciate the benefit of weaponry, so must he not have a little taste for this?

Miyamoto Musashi

#52. 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

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

Sun Tzu

#54. The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known; for then the enemy will have to prepare against a possible attack at several different points;

Sun Tzu

#55. Our whole strategy must be to prevent the Allies from securing a beachhead, because once they achieve that, the battle is lost ... perhaps even the war.

Ken Follett

#56. Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots.

Sun Tzu

#57. 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

#58. Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.

Sun Tzu

#59. A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

Baltasar Gracian

#60. Pentagon records show that at least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. Army have deserted since the Iraq war began. Hey, at least somebody has an exit strategy.

Tina Fey

#61. Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.

Sun Tzu

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

Sun Tzu

#63. To begin by bluster, but afterwards to take fright at the enemy's numbers, shows a supreme lack of intelligence.

Sun Tzu

#64. When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is COLLAPSE.

Sun Tzu

#65. Nineteen people flew into the towers. It seems hard for me to imagine that we could go to war enough to make the world safe enough that nineteen people wouldn't want to do harm to us. So it seems like we have to rethink a strategy that is less military-based.

Jon Stewart

#66. Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.

Sun Tzu

#67. 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

#68. The art of chess is akin to the art of war itself; full of strategy and cunning, yet clever placements.

Jennifer Megan Varnadore

#69. 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

#70. Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.

George W. Bush

#71. Here's my strategy on the Cold War: we win, they lose.

Ronald Reagan

#72. Rewards for good service should not be deferred a single day.

Sun Tzu

#73. Who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits

Sun Tzu

#74. 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

#75. The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach.

Sun Tzu

#76. 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

#77. The handful of Germans who had reached the trench had been sacrificed for the stupid sort of fun called. Strategy, probably. Stupid! ... It was, of course, just like German spools to go mining by candle-light. Obsoletely Nibenlungen-like. Dwarfs probably!

Ford Madox Ford

#78. NATO needs to adapt its strategy to meet new challenges

Angela Merkel

#79. We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors.

Sun Tzu

#80. Our strategy is one of preventing war by making it self-evident to our enemies that they're going to get their clocks cleaned if they start one.

John W. Vessey Jr.

#81. To ensure attaining an objective, one should have alternate objectives. An attack that converges on one point should threaten, and be able to diverge against another. Only by this flexibility of aim can strategy be attuned to the uncertainty of war.

B.H. Liddell Hart

#82. If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve.

Sun Tzu

#83. 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

#84. All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

Sun Tzu

#85. Knowing the enemy enables you to take the offensive, knowing yourself enables you to stand on the defensive.

Sun Tzu

#86. Appear at points which the enemy must hasten to defend; march swiftly to places where you are not expected.

Sun Tzu

#87. Consider your goal like a war to win and use whatever strategies you know to win

Bangambiki Habyarimana

#88. 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

#89. They [terrorists] have declared war on us and we need to have a serious strategy to destroy ISIS.

Jeb Bush

#90. Never venture, never win!

Sun Tzu

#91. If your enemy has the power to see into the future, make sure you are the author of that future.

Lionel Suggs

#92. 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

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

Sun Tzu

#94. We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country
its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps.

Sun Tzu

#95. When you cannot be deceived by men you will have realised the wisdom of strategy.

Miyamoto Musashi

#96. With acting, you wanna see if you can get into trouble without knowing how you're gonna get out of it. It's like the exact opposite of war, where you need an exit strategy. When you're acting, you should get all the way into trouble with no exit strategy, and have the cameras rolling.

John Cusack

#97. You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked.

Sun Tzu

#98. It is a long-cherished tradition among a certain type of military thinker that huge casualties are the main thing. If they are on the other side then this is a valuable bonus.

Terry Pratchett

#99. Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.

Sun Tzu

#100. The higher level of grand strategy [is] that of conducting war with a far-sighted regard to the state of the peace that will follow.

B.H. Liddell Hart