#Strategy Quotes

“But when the fox hath once got in his nose, He'll soon find means to make the body follow.”

“I have trod a measure, I have flattered a lady, I havebeen politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy.”

“My brain more busy than the labouring spider Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies.”

“Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,And think perchance they'll sell; if not,The lustre of the better yet to showShall show the better.”

“Bait the hook well. This fish will bite.”

“When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; And when we see the figure of the house, Then must we rate the cost of the erection.”

“Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth,And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,With windlasses and with assays of bias,By indirections find directions out.”

“Were it goodTo set the exact wealth of all our statesAll at one cast? to set so rich a mainOn the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?It were not good.”

“He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit.”

“'Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.”

“When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner”

“There's an old saying that applies to me: you can't lose a game if you don't play the game. (Act 1, scene 4)”

“Wealth is in applications of mind to nature; and the art of getting rich consists not in industry, much less in saving, but in a better order, in timeliness, in being at the right spot.”

“The king hath note of all that they intend, by interception which they dream not of.”

“Tis better using France than trusting France;Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas,Which He hath given for fence impregnable,And with their helps only defend ourselves;In them, and in ourselves, our safety lies.”

“How strange or odd some'er I bear myself,As I perchance hereafter shall think meetTo put an antic disposition on.”

“We proceeded systematically, village by village and we destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the towers, cut down the shady trees, burned the crops and broke the reservoirs in punitive devastation.”

“If you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused.”

“The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks.”

“Appeasement is feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last.”

“They feed the crocodile in the hope that he will eat them last.”

“Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear - I fear greatly - the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar, even more loudly, even more widely.”

“There is at least one thing worse than fighting with allies - And that is to fight without them”

“Wars are not won by evacuations.”

“We have no lasting friends, no lasting enemies, only lasting interests.”

“Everybody has always underrated the Russians. They keep their own secrets alike from foe and friends.”

“... by indirections find directions out.”

“Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.”

“There is no working middle course in wartime.”

“When you feel you cannot continue in your position for another minute, and all that is in human power has been done, that is the moment when the enemy is most exhausted, and when one step forward will give you the fruits of the struggle you have borne”

“Victory is the beautiful, bright-colored flower. Transport is the stem without which it could never have blossomed.”

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

“I have found in my experience of war, that plans are useless, but planning is invaluable.”

“I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley.”

“No matter how enmeshed a commander becomes in the elaboration of his own thoughts, it is sometimes necessary to take the enemy into account.”

“The enemy is still proud and powerful. He is hard to get at. He still possesses enormous armies, vast resources, and invaluable strategic territories...No one can tell what new complications and perils might arise in four or five more years of war. And it is in the dragging-out of the war at enormous expense, until the democracies are tired or bored or split that the main hopes of Germany and Japan must reside.”

“We hoped to land a wild cat that would tear out the bowels of the Boche. Instead we have stranded a vast whale with its tail flopping about in the water.”

“Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.”

“The is always much to be said for not attempting more than you can do and for making a certainty of what you try. But this principle, like others in life and war, has it exceptions.”

“...every offensive lost its force as it proceeded. It was like throwing a bucket of water over the floor. It first rushed forward, then soaked forward, and finally stopped altogether until another bucket could be brought.”

“I wanted us to go to the Tories when we were strong...not in misfortune to be made an honest woman of.”

“In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.”

“In battles two things are usually required of the Commander-in-Chief: to make a good plan for his army and, secondly, to keep a strong reserve.”

“Quite frequently, he who goes too fast gets there too late - or not at all.”

“There is, therefore, wisdom in reserving one's decisions as long as possible and until all the facts and forces that will be potent at the moment are revealed.”

“The tank was originally invented to clear a way for the infantry in the teeth of machine-gun fire. Now it is the infantry who will have to clear a way for the tanks.”

“War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.”

“And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever occurred.”

“In war, the truth must be guarded by a body guard of lies.”

“Be firm on principle but flexible on method.”