On War, Volume 1Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Company, 1908 - Military art and science |
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Common terms and phrases
action activity appear Archduke Art of War attack attained Austrian empire Austrian monarchy Austrians battle battle of Bautzen battle of Hochkirch battle of Leuthen battle of Soor become belong Blücher boldness Buonaparte campaign causes cavalry certainly CHAPTER circumstances Clausewitz combat Commander completely conception Condottieri conduct consequently consideration courage criticism danger decision defeat defensive degree destruction difficulty direction effect element enemy enemy's Army enemy's force experience favourable feeling fighting French Directory gain genius give greater higher idea importance influence judgment lead less look loss lost means military force military history military virtue mind moral forces Mormant motives nature necessary never Norican oblique order peace political object position principle proof pursuit regarded relations resistance result retreat Rhine Scharnhorst side spirit Strategy Styria success superiority in numbers suppose tactics take place theory things tion troops truth victory whole
Popular passages
Page 63 - Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult. These difficulties accumulate and produce a friction, which no man can imagine exactly who has not seen war.
Page 11 - Thus, therefore, the political object, as the original motive of the War, will be the standard for determining both the aim of the military force and also the amount of effort to be made. This it cannot be in itself, but it is so in relation to both the belligerent States, because we are concerned with realities, not with mere abstractions. One and the same political object may produce totally different effects upon different people, or even upon the same people at different times ; we can, therefore,...
Page xxxv - If an opponent," writes Clausewitz, "is to be made to comply with our will, we must place him in a situation which is more oppressive to him than the sacrifice we demand
Page 71 - Tactics is the theory of the use of military forces in combat. Strategy is the theory of the use of combats for the object of the War.
Page 19 - Shall theory leave it here, and move on, self satisfied with absolute conclusions and rules? Then it is of no practical use. Theory must also take into account the human element; it must accord a place to courage, to boldness, even to rashness. The art of war has to deal with living and with moral forces; the consequence of which is that it can never attain the absolute and positive. There is therefore everywhere a margin for the accidental; and just as much in the greatest things as in the smallest.
Page 30 - If then the concentration of all the means into a state of pure resistance, affords a superiority in the contest, and if this advantage is sufficient to balance whatever superiority in numbers the adversary may have, then the mere duration of the contest will suffice gradually to bring the loss of force on the part of the adversary to a point at which the political object can no longer be an equivalent, a point at which, therefore, he must give up the contest.
Page 64 - The danger which war brings with it, the bodily exertions which it requires, augment this evil so much, that they may be regarded as the greatest causes of it.
Page 60 - ... breast. To add to all this, compassion strikes the beating heart with pity at the sight of the maimed and fallen. The young soldier cannot reach any of these different strata of danger without feeling that the light of reason does not move here in the same medium, that it is not refracted in the same manner as in speculative contemplation. Indeed, he must be a very extraordinary man who, under these impressions for the first time, does not lose the power of making any instantaneous decisions....
Page 23 - In connection with the plan of a campaign we shall hereafter examine more closely into the meaning of disarming a nation, but here we must at once draw a distinction between three things, which as three general objects comprise everything else within them. They are the military power, the country, and the will of the enemy. The military power must be destroyed, that is, reduced to such a state as not to be able to prosecute the war. This is the sense in which we wish to be understood hereafter, whenever...
Page 21 - We see, therefore, in the first place, that under all circumstances War is to be regarded not as an independent thing, but as a political instrument; and it is only by taking this point of view that we can avoid finding ourselves in opposition to all military history. This is the only means of unlocking the great book and making it intelligible. Secondly, this view shows us how Wars must differ in character according to the nature of the motives and circumstances from which they proceed. Now, the...