“Give me enough medals and I’ll win you any war”

As a rule it is circumstances that make men.

There shall be no Alps.

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

If the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds, I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.

Never tell your enemy he is doing the wrong thing.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.

We frustrate many designs against us by pretending not to see them.

The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.

Napoleon Bonaparte, on finding a dog beside the body of his dead master, licking his face and howling, on a moonlit field after a battle. Napoleon was haunted by this scene until his own death.

Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.

Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that escapes hypocrisy.

All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move.

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.

Statism is a system of institutionalized violence and perpetual civil war. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by production.

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

When you smoke you don’t want to war.

Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

We make war that we may live in peace.

A bad war is fought with a good mind.