The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.

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

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.

The keys of a fortress are always well worth the retirement of the garrison when it is resolved to yield only on those conditions. On this principle it is always wiser to grant an honorable capitulation to a garrison which has made a vigorous resistance than to risk an assault.

Reconnaissance memoranda should always be written in the simplest style and be purely descriptive. They should never stray from their objective by introducing extraneous ideas.