If You Want Peace, Understand War.

It Is Folly To Imagine That The Aggressive Types, Whether Individuals Or Nations, Can Be Bought Off ... Since The Payment Of Danegeld Stimulates A Demand For More Danegeld. But They Can Be Curbed. Their Very Belief In Force Makes Them More Susceptible To The Deterrent Effect Of A Formidable Opposing Force.

...regrettable As It May Seem To The Idealist, The Experience Of History Provides Little Warrant For The Belief That Real Progress, And The Freedom That Makes Progress Possible, Lies In Unification. For Where Unification Has Been Able To Establish Unity Of Ideas It Has Usually Ended In Uniformity, Paralysing The Growth Of New Ideas. And Where The Unification Has Merely Brought About An Artificial Or Imposed Unity, Its Irksomeness Has Led Through Discord To Disruption.

In War, The Chief Incalculable Is The Human Will.

This High Proportion Of History's Decisive Campaigns, The Significance Of Which Is Enhanced By The Comparative Rarity Of The Direct Approach, Enforces The Conclusion That The Indirect Is By Far The Most Hopeful And Economic Form Of Strategy.

I Used To Think That The Causes Of War Were Predominantly Economic. I Came To Think That They Were More Psychological. I Am Now Coming To Think That They Are Decisively "personal," Arising From The Defects And Ambitions Of Those Who Have The Power To Influence The Currents Of Nations.