The frontiers of nations are either large rivers, or chains of mountains, or deserts. Of all these obstacles to the march of an army, deserts are the most difficult to surmount; mountains come next; and large rivers hold only the third rank.

Every private in the French army carries a Field Marshall wand in his knapsack.

Cossacks are the best light troops among all that exist. If I had them in my army, I would go through all the world with them.

Nothing is so contrary to military rules as to make the strength of your army known, either in the orders of the day, in proclamations, or in the newspapers.

An army should have but a single line of operations which it should carefully preserve, and should abandon only when compelled by imperious circumstances.

The ideal army would be the one in which every officer would know what he ought to do in every contingency; the best possible army is the one that comes closest to this. I give myself only half the credit for the battles I have won, and a general gets enough credit when he is named at all, for the fact is that a battle is won by the army.