Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding. B. H. Liddell Hart More Quotes by B. H. Liddell Hart More Quotes From B. H. Liddell Hart The urge to gain release from tension by action is a precipitating cause of war. B. H. Liddell Hart gains causes war In reality, it si more fruitful to wound than to kill. While the dead man lies still, counting only one man less, the wounded man is a progressive drain upon his side. B. H. Liddell Hart men lying reality Direct pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent. B. H. Liddell Hart opponents resistance military The nearer the cutting off point lies to the main force of the enemy, the more immediate the effect; whereas the closer to the strategic base it takes place, the greater the effect. B. H. Liddell Hart cutting military lying The effect to be sought is the dislocation of the opponent's mind and dispositions - such an effect is the true gauge of an indirect approach. B. H. Liddell Hart gauges military mind While hitting one must guard ... In order to hit with effect, the enemy must be taken off his guard. B. H. Liddell Hart taken military order An army should always be so distributed that its parts can aid each other and combine to produce the maximum possible concentration of force at one place, while the minimum force necessary is used elsewhere to prepare the success of the concentration. B. H. Liddell Hart aids army military It is only to clear from history that states rarely keep faith with each other, save in so far (and so long) as their promises seem to them to combine with their interests. B. H. Liddell Hart military long promise If you find your opponent in a strong position costly to force, you should leave him a line of retreat as the quickest way of loosening his resistance. It should, equally, be a principle of policy, especially in war, to provide your opponent with a ladder by which he can climb down. B. H. Liddell Hart strong military war It is folly to imagine that the aggressive types, whether individuals or nations, can be bought off ... since the payment of danegeld stimulates a demand for more danegeld. But they can be curbed. Their very belief in force makes them more susceptible to the deterrent effect of a formidable opposing force. B. H. Liddell Hart demand military belief The principle of compulsory service, embodied in the system of conscription, lias been the means by which modem dictators and military gangs have shackled their people after a coup d'état, and bound them to their own aggressive purposes. In view of the great service that conscription has rendered to tyranny and war, it is fundamentally shortsighted for any liberty-loving and peace-desiring peoples to maintain it as an imagined safeguard, lest they become the victims of the monster they have helped to preserve. B. H. Liddell Hart military war mean Direct experience is inherently too limited to form an adequate foundation either for theory or for application. At the best it produces an atmosphere that is of value in drying and hardening the structure of thought. The greater value of indirect experience lies in its greater variety and extent. History is universal experience, the experience not of another, but of many others under manifold conditions. B. H. Liddell Hart atmosphere foundation lying If you wish for peace, understand war. B. H. Liddell Hart wish war peace Helplessness induces hopelessness, and history attests that loss of hope and not loss of lives is what decides the issue of war. B. H. Liddell Hart hope loss war history The chief incalculable in war is the human will. B. H. Liddell Hart chief human will war
