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.

A plan of campaign should anticipate everything which the enemy can do, and contain within itself the means of thwarting him.

War is composed of nothing but accidents...there is but one favorable moment, the great art is to seize it.

It is not that addresses at the opening of a battle make the soldiers brave. The old veterans scarcely hear them, and recruits forget them at the first boom of the cannon. Their usefulness lies in their effect on the course of the campaign, in neutralizing rumors and false reports, in maintaining a good spirit in the camp, and in furnishing matter for camp-fire talk. The printed order of the day should fulfill these different ends.

The issue of a battle is the result of an instant, of a thought. There is the advance, with its various combinations, the battle is joined, the struggle goes on a certain time, the decisive moment presents itself, a spark of genius discloses it, and the smallest body of reserves accomplish victory.