The art of war consists in bringing to bear with an inferior army a superiority of force at the point at which one attacks or is attacked.

So we have had to dispense with the indispensable.

The art of war consists in being always able, even with an inferior army, to have stronger forces than the enemy at the point of attack or the point which is attacked.

I base my calculation on the expectation that luck will be against me.

It is an approved maxim in war, never to do what the enemy wishes you to do, for this reason alone, that he desires it.

There is no man more pusillanimous than I when I am planning a campaign. I purposely exaggerate all the dangers and all the calamities that the circumstances make possible. I am in a thoroughly painful state of agitation. This does not keep me from looking quite serene in front of my entourage; I am like an unmarried girl laboring with child. Once I have made up my mind, everything is forgotten except what leads to success.