Strategy Quotes

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

If I said I would knock out Sonny Liston in 1 minute and 49 seconds of the first round, that would hurt the gate.

Success in war depends upon the golden rule of war.

To dislocate the functioning of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot because it can be longer-lasting, costly to the society but not wantonly destructive, moreover, it is more difficult for Government to quell it by superior force.

In law it is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not.

We secured peace for our country for one and a half years, as well as an opportunity of preparing our forces for defense if fascist Germany risked attacking our country in defiance of the pact. This was a definite gain to our country and a loss for fascist Germany.

I hold it to be of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him more cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you

I realize now that there's a strength in dunking that I can use to my advantage. When you dunk all the time it isn't as demoralizing to the opponent, but when you dunk at a key moment in the game you can use it to change the momentum.

A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers.

In the right key one can say anything. In the wrong key, nothing: the only delicate part is the establishment of the key.

When the reptile is attacked at one mouth of his burrow, he shows himself at another.

One rule is to not use complicated techniques unless they are necessary to achieve your goal. First, use simple movements, and if they don't work, then introduce the more complex ones.

The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail does not consist in the amount of work done by each but in the amount of intelligent work.

To establish yourself in the world a person must do all they can to appear already established.

A satyagrahi is sometimes bound to use language which is capable of two meanings, provided both the meanings are obvious and necessary and there is no intention to deceive anyone.

If you have half a story and you don't know the rest, you use what you have to pry the rest out of someone.

Unhappy the general who comes on the field of battle with a system.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.

Use the formula P=40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired. Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.

We often select envenomed praise which, by a reaction upon those we praise, shows faults we could not have shown by other means.

Princes should delegate to others the enactment of unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the means of winning favours.

The popular masses are like water, and the army is like a fish. How then can it be said that when there is water, a fish will have difficulty in preserving its existence? An army which fails to maintain good discipline gets into opposition with the popular masses, and thus by its own action dries up the water.

It's not like I idolize this one guy Machiavelli. I idolize that type of thinking where you do whatever's gonna make you achieve your goal.

There’s only one basic principle of self-defense- you must apply the most effective weapon, as soon as possible, to the most vulnerable target.

Every failure is a lesson learned about your strategy.

A bad war is fought with a good mind.

I'll put the Packers' best players on defense. It's best for a team and good for its morale.

Go for the throat. If you cant, go for the nads.

Be fearful when the markets get greedy, be greedy when the markets get fearful.

My style? You can call it the art of fighting without fighting.

The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.

Luck never built a business. Prosperity and growth come only to the business that systematically finds and exploits its potential.

Pure politics is merely the calculus of combinations and of chances.

I invite even the school of violence to give this peaceful non-co-operation a trial.

I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.

Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.

Lead from the front - but don t leave your base behind.

Benign neglect, bordering on sloth, remains the hallmark of our investment process.

The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.

I know what I would do if I were coach. I'd determine our strengths and weaknesses and utilize them. And it's pretty clear what our strength is.

To try to be safe everywhere is to be strong nowhere.

One of the failures of technology companies is that they build technologies thinking everything else will work out.

Leadership is the intelligent use of power.

The chess master says nothing, other than moving the silient chess piece.

I don't even call it violence when it's in self defense; I call it intelligence.

First, what is a revolution? Sometimes I'm inclined to believe that many of our people are using this word "revolution" loosely, without taking careful consideration [of] what this word actually means, and what its historic characteristics are. When you study the historic nature of revolutions, the motive of a revolution, the objective of a revolution, and the result of a revolution, and the methods used in a revolution, you may change words. You may devise another program. You may change your goal and you may change your mind.

All this struggling and striving to make the world better is a great mistake. Not that it's wrong to try to improve the world if you know how but simply because struggling and striving are the worst possible ways to go about doing anything!

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.

To live with our enemies as if they may some time become our friends, and to live with our friends as if they may some time become our enemies, is not a moral but a political maxim

As Regis Mckenna once said, the best marketing is education

We often get in quicker by the back door than by the front.

Don't swap horses in the middle of the stream.

Intelligent planning is essential for success in any undertaking designed to accumulate riches.

I do think that I have a better sense of how military action can result in unintended consequences.

There are people who have figured out the exact, you know, Kanye West formula, the mix between "Graduation" and "808s," and were able to become more successful at 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 establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight. Because once they've got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor.

My opinion is that the only two computer companies that are software-driven are Apple and NeXT, and I wonder about Apple.

To win by strategy is no less the role of a general than to win by arms.