Quotes - Roberto Trentini (Imola, 05, Italy) Showing 1-30 of 61

#1

“No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.”
― Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

tags: german, strategic-planning, war

#2

“The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

tags: pacifism, peace, war

80 likes

#3

“The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.”
― Prussian General Karl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege, 1832

161 likes

#4

“If the mind is to emerge unscathed from this relentless struggle with the unforeseen, two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.”
― Carl Von Clausewitz, On War: Volume 1

tags: darkest-hour, intellect, light, the-way, truth

152 likes

#5

“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.”
― Karl Von Clausewitz

tags: uncertainty

94 likes

#6

“Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult”
― Carl Von Clausewitz

97 likes

#7

“No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.”
― Carl Von Clausewitz

tags: carl-von-clausewitz, von-kriege

73 likes

#8

“There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom.”
― Carl Von Clausewitz, On War

62 likes

#9

“There are very few men-and they are the exceptions-who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment”
― Carl Von Clausewitz

57 likes

#10

“We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one鈥檚 balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship鈥檚 compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.”
― Carl von Clausewitz

54 likes

#11

“The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.”
― Von Clausewitz

34 likes

#12

“Anyone who falls into the habit of thinking and expecting the best of his subordinates at all times is, for that reason alone, unsuited to command an army”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

33 likes

#13

“...as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.”
― Carl von Clausewitz

31 likes

#14

“War is merely the continuation of politics by other means”
― Carl von Clausewitz

tags: war

33 likes

#15

“... a strong character is one that will not be unbalanced by the most powerful emotions”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

26 likes

#16

“The aggressor is always peace-loving (as Bonaparte always claimed to be); he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

25 likes

#17

“peace is maintained by the equilibrium of forces, and will continue just as long as this equilibrium exists, and no longer.”
― Carl von Clausewitz, On War

15 likes

#18

“Surprise becomes effective when we suddenly face the enemy at one point with far more troops than he expected. This type of numerical superiority is quite distinct from numerical superiority in general: it is the most powerful medium in the art of war.”
― Carl von Clausewitz

12 likes

#19

“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
― Otto von Bismarck

268 likes

#20

“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable 鈥� the art of the next best.”
― Otto von Bismarck

tags: democracy, elections, government, political-science, politics-observation, politics-science, politicsics, power, responsibility

170 likes

#21

“God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.”
― Otto von Bismarck

133 likes

#22

“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).”
― Otto von Bismarck

tags: world-war-i, world-war-one

108 likes

#23

“man cannot control the current of events. he can only float with them and steer”
― Otto von Bismarck

tags: control

51 likes

#24

“The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood”
― Otto von Bismarck

tags: war

45 likes

#25

“Politics are not a science based on logic; they are the capacity of always choosing at each instant, in constantly changing situations, the least harmful, the most useful.”
― Otto von Bismarck

tags: politics

39 likes

#26

“the main thing is to make history not to write it”
― Otto von Bismarck

tags: war

36 likes

#27

“We live in a wondrous time, in which the strong is weak because of his scruples and the weak grows strong because of his audacity.”
― Otto von Bismarck

tags: politics, war

24 likes

#28

“Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already.”
― Otto von Bismarck

19 likes

#29