More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum (let him who wants peace prepare for war) VEGETIUS, A.D. FOURTH CENTURY
the state that wins wars with few lives lost and resources squandered is the state that can thrive over greater periods of time.
The self is the friend of a man who masters himself through the self, but for a man without self-mastery, the self is like an enemy at war. THE BHAGAVAD GITA, INDIA, CIRCA A.D. FIRST CENTURY
Gandhi understood that if nonviolence were to work, it would have to be extremely strategic, demanding much thought and planning.
War demands the utmost in realism, seeing things as they are.
Although a goddess of war, [Athena] gets no pleasure from battle…but rather from settling disputes, and upholding the law by pacific means. She bears no arms in time of peace and, if ever she needs any, will usually borrow a set from Zeus. Her mercy is great…. Yet, once engaged in battle, she never loses the day, even against Ares himself, being better grounded in tactics and strategy than he; and wise captains always approach her for advice. THE GREEK MYTHS, VOL. 1, ROBERT GRAVES, 1955
What people say about themselves does not matter; people will say anything. Look at what they have done; deeds do not lie.
Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 1803–1882
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.
Do not be lured by the need to be liked: better to be respected, even feared. Victory over your enemies will bring you a more lasting popularity.
Don’t depend on the enemy not coming; depend rather on being ready for him. —Sun-tzu, The Art of War (fourth century B.C.)
What limits individuals as well as nations is the inability to confront reality, to see things for what they are. As we grow older, we become more rooted in the past. Habit takes over. Something that has worked for us before becomes a doctrine, a shell to protect us from reality. Repetition replaces creativity.
Knowledge, experience, and theory have limitations: no amount of thinking in advance can prepare you for the chaos of life, for the infinite possibilities of the moment. The great philosopher of war Carl von Clausewitz called this “friction”: the difference between our plans and what actually happens.
Do not waste time on things you cannot change or influence. Just keep moving.
Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity.
“You know, Foley, I have only one eye—I have a right to be blind sometimes.” And raising his telescope to his blind eye, he calmly remarked, “I really do not see the signal.”
First, it is better to confront your fears, let them come to the surface, than to ignore them or tamp them down.
There is something in war that drives so deeply into you that death ceases to be the enemy, merely another participant in a game you don’t wish to end. PHANTOM OVER VIETNAM, JOHN TROTTI, USMC, 1984
Quite often we feel somewhat lost in our actions. We could do this or that—we have many options, but none of them seem quite necessary.
Death is nothing, but to live defeated is to die every day. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 1769–1821
For what the leaders are, that, as a rule, will the men below them be. —Xenophon (430?–355? B.C.)
Patton’s philosophy of command was: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” PATTON: A GENIUS FOR WAR, CARLO D’ESTE, 1995
Mercenary and auxiliary arms are useless and dangerous; and if one keeps his state founded on mercenary arms, one will never be firm or secure; for they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, unfaithful; bold among friends, among enemies cowardly; no fear of God, no faith with men; ruin is postponed only as long as attack is postponed; and in peace you are despoiled by them, in war by the enemy. The cause of this is that they have no love nor cause to keep them in the field other than a small stipend, which is not sufficient to make them want to die for you. THE PRINCE, NICCOLÒ
...more
If you wish to be loved by your soldiers, husband their blood and do not lead them to slaughter. FREDERICK THE GREAT, 1712–86
Aim at their weaknesses; make the war expensive for them and cheap for you.
From the story of King Pyrrhus and his famous lament after the Battle of Asculum comes the expression “Pyrrhic victory,” signifying a triumph that is as good as a defeat, for it comes at too great a cost.
He whom the ancients called an expert in battle gained victory where victory was easily gained. Thus the battle of the expert is never an exceptional victory, nor does it win him reputation for wisdom or credit for courage. His victories in battle are unerring. Unerring means that he acts where victory is certain, and conquers an enemy that has already lost. THE ART OF WAR, SUN-TZU, FOURTH CENTURY B.C.
Abundance makes us rich in dreams, for in dreams there are no limits. But it makes us poor in reality.
A rapid, powerful transition to the attack—the glinting sword of vengeance—is the most brilliant moment of the defense. CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, 1780–1831
Space I can recover. Time, never. —Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821)
War is a physical affair, which takes place somewhere specific: generals depend on maps and plan strategies to be realized in particular locations. But time is just as important as space in strategic thought, and knowing how to use time will make you a superior strategist, giving an added dimension to your attacks and defense. To do this you must stop thinking of time as an abstraction: in reality, beginning the minute you are born, time is all you have. It is your only true commodity. People can take away your possessions, but—short of murder—not even the most powerful aggressors can take
...more
Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage in war than audacity. CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, 1780–1831
I had reached a point, at which I was not afraid to die. This spirit made me a freeman in fact , while I remained a slave in form . When a slave cannot be flogged he is more than half free.
Douglass could only assume that Covey would now come after him with a gun or find some other way to kill him. It never happened. Slowly it dawned on Douglass: to kill him, or punish him in some powerful way, posed too great a risk. Word would get out that Covey had failed to break a Negro this one time, had had to resort to a gun when his terror tactics did not work.
Douglass had noticed that slaveholders often “prefer to whip those who are most easily whipped.”
Thousands of years ago, our primitive ancestors were prone to feelings of great weakness and vulnerability. To survive in the hostile environment of our early world, animals had speed, teeth and claws, fur against winter cold, and other advantages of power and protection. Humans had none of this and must have felt terrifyingly exposed and alone. The only way to compensate for such weakness was to form groups.
the soldier who feels he is losing the support of those around him is borne back into an intolerable primitive terror. He fears he will face death alone.
Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of resistance can be diminished—by giving thought not only to the aim but to the method of approach. Avoid a frontal attack on a long-established position; instead, seek to turn it by flank movement, so that a more penetrable side is exposed to the thrust of truth. —B. H. Liddell Hart (1895–1970)
Aut non tentaris, aut perfice (Either don’t attempt it, or carry it through to the end). OVID, 43 B.C.–A.D. 17
The only real ending is death. Everything else is a transition.
The critical question in war is knowing when to stop, when to make your exit and come to terms. Stop too soon and you lose whatever you might have gained by advancing; you allow too little time for the conflict to show you where it is heading. Stop too late and you sacrifice your gains by exhausting yourself, grabbing more than you can handle, creating an angry and vengeful enemy.
People are much more likely to believe something they see with their own eyes than something they are told. They are more likely to believe something they discover than something pushed at them.
In each case, whenever someone tried to pass along some gossip or get Murray to take his or her side in the family constellation, he would either deflect the attempt with a neutral comment or pass it along to the person involved.
Never interfere with an enemy that is in the process of committing suicide. —Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821)
Even more foolish is one who clings to words and phrases and thus tries to achieve understanding. It is like trying to strike the moon with a stick, or scratching a shoe because there is an itchy spot on the foot. It has nothing to do with the Truth. ZEN MASTER MUMON, 1183–1260
The Lydian King Croesus had had Miltiades much in this thoughts so when he learned of his capture, he sent a command to the people of Lampsacus to set him at liberty; if they refused, he was determined, he added, to “cut them down like a pine-tree.” The people of the town were baffled by Croesus’ threat, and at a loss to understand what being cut down like a pine-tree might mean, until at last the true significance of the phrase dawned upon a certain elderly man: the pine, he explained, was the only kind of tree which sent up no new shoots after being felled—cut down a pine and it will die off
...more
what matters is not what people say or intend but the results of their actions, whether power is increased or decreased. This is what Machiavelli called the “effective truth”—the real truth, in other words, what happens in fact, not in words or theories.
Deeds and results do not lie.
You must be harsher on yourself and on others: failure to communicate is the fault not of the dull-witted audience but of the unstrategic communicator.
No structure can stand for long when it rots from within.
