Nobody respects a country with a poor army, but everybody respects a country with a good army. I raise my toast to the Finnish army.

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.

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 strength of an army, like the momentum in mechanics, is estimated by the weight multiplied by the velocity. A rapid march exerts a beneficial moral influence on the army and increases its means of victory.

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.