Strategy Quotes

“Having a strategy suggests an ability to look up from the short term and the trivial to view the long term and the essential, to address causes rather than symptoms, to see woods rather than trees.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth. —Mike Tyson”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Indeed, Clausewitz was wary of the general who tried to be too smart. He preferred those who kept their imaginations in check and a firm grip on the harsh realities of battle.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are… The common people are always impressed by appearances and results.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Strategy is revolution. Everything else is tactics.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Napoleon embodied a new way of fighting wars: a combination of individual genius and mass organization, and objectives far more ambitious than those of his predecessors.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“A strategist should think in terms of paralyzing, not of killing. —Basil Liddell Hart”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“The point at which God asserted his greatness to his chosen people was when he arranged the escape of the Jews from Egypt, where they were kept as slaves. One reading of the story of Exodus is that it was not so much about freeing the Israelites from slavery as about asserting God’s greatness by establishing a people beholden to him and ensuring that they—and others—were in awe of his power. Under this interpretation, the Exodus story becomes a gigantic manipulation.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“So the realm of strategy is one of bargaining and persuasion as well as threats and pressure, psychological as well as physical effects, and words as well as deeds. This is why strategy is the central political art. It is about getting more out of a situation than the starting balance of power would suggest. It is the art of creating power.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“The ability to persuade not only one’s people but also allies and enemies was a vital attribute of the successful strategist. In this way, strategy required a combination of words and deeds, and the ability to manipulate them both.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“The most effective strategies do not depend solely on violence—though this can play an instrumental role, by demonstrating superiority as much as expressing aggression—but benefit instead from the ability to forge coalitions. Little in the rest of this book will suggest that this list should be expanded. The elements of strategic behavior have not changed, only the complexity of the situations in which they must be applied.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“A sudden powerful transition to the offensive—the flashing sword of vengeance—is the greatest moment for the defense.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“There are no endings. If you think so you are deceived as to their nature. They are all beginnings. Here is one. —Hilary Mantel”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“It is as well to avoid illusions of control, but in the end all we can do is act as if we can influence events. To do otherwise is to succumb to fatalism.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“strategy formation walks on two feet, one deliberate, the other emergent.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“man becomes a little cog in the machine, and, aware of this, his one preoccupation is to become a bigger cog. —Max Weber,”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“The brain consumes 20 percent of the body’s energy, far more than any other organ, while making up only 2 percent of an adult’s body weight.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Radical groups with distant goals could find comfort in an isolated purity, while those who tasted success saw the value of accommodating the views of others.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“God created strategy by allowing choice,”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Tricks with language allowed the foolish and ignorant to appear wise and knowledgeable”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“viewing strategy as “the art of making use of time and space”;”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“In the nature of things you can never try to escape one danger without encountering another; but prudence consists in knowing how to recognize the nature of the different dangers and in accepting the least bad as good.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Although ‘Machiavellian’ has become synonymous with strategies based on deceit and manipulation, Machiavelli’s approach was actually far more balanced. He understood that the more the prince was perceived to rely on devious methods, the less likely it would be that they succeeded. The wise strategist would seek to develop a foundation for the exercise of power that went beyond false impressions and harsh punishments, and onto real accomplishments and general respect.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“David’s success depended on surprise and accuracy. He knew he could not defeat Goliath on the giant’s terms, which is why he rejected Saul’s armor and with it the conventions of this form of combat.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“we are all inevitably someone’s adversary.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Survival must be the highest objective; otherwise nothing could be achieved.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“Deception also turned out to be a vital strategic quality. It involved deliberately sending untrue signals with a view to changing another’s behavior.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“So much was expected of the true strategist: a student of the present who must be aware of the past, sensitive to the possibilities of the future, conscious of the danger of bias, alert to ambiguity, alive to chaos, ready to think through consequences of alternative courses of action, and then able to articulate all this with sufficient precision for those who must execute its prescriptions.2 This was a counsel of perfection. There was only so much knowledge that an individual could accumulate, assimilate, and manipulate; only so many potential sequences of events that could be worked through in a system that was full of uncertainty, complexity, and chaos.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“The word strategy only came into general use at the start of the nineteenth century. Its origins predated Napoleon and reflected the Enlightenment’s growing confidence in empirical science and the application of reason.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History

“The Art of War did not provide a single route to victory and recognized that while battles were best avoided they sometimes had to be fought.”
― Lawrence Freedman, Strategy: A History