Category: Thought

All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.

Carl von Clausewitz, On War (1832), Book V.

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, The Art of War (c. 6th century BCE), from Chapter One.

[S]trength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.

Carl von Clausewitz, On War (1832), Book I, Chapter Three.

The Wise are silent, the Foolish speak, and children are thus led astray.

When one’s friends and enemies agree on any particular point they are usually wrong.

Saki, The Unbearable Bassington, first page (1912).

And each, believing he was utterly and finally right, damned with equally positive conviction the rest of the world.

Algernon Blackwood, The Damned (1914).

We all know that Prime Ministers are wedded to the truth, but like other wedded couples they sometimes live apart.

Saki, The Unbearable Bassington, ch. 13 (1912).

Not easily may an individual escape the deep slavery of the herd.

There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.

In a mad world it always seems simpler to obey.

Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana (1958).