With growing experience, all skillful commanders sought to profit by the power of the defensive, even when on the offensive. B. H. Liddell Hart More Quotes by B. H. Liddell Hart More Quotes From B. H. Liddell Hart While there are many causes for which a state goes to war, its fundamental object can be epitomized as that of ensuring the continuance of its policy - in face of the determination of the opposing state to pursue a contrary policy. In the human will lies the source and mainspring of conflict. B. H. Liddell Hart determination military war For even the best of peace training is more theoretical than practical experience ... indirect practical experience may be the more valuable because infinitely wider. B. H. Liddell Hart training military may Every action is seen to fall into one of three main categories, guarding, hitting, or moving. Here, then, are the elements of combat, whether in war or pugilism. B. H. Liddell Hart war fall moving The hydrogen bomb is not the answer to the Western peoples' dream of full and final insurance of their security ... While it has increased their striking power it has sharpened their anxiety and deepened their sense of insecurity. B. H. Liddell Hart hydrogen-bomb military dream The implied threat of using nuclear weapons to curb guerrillas was as absurd as to talk of using a sledge hammer to ward off a swarm of mosquitoes. B. H. Liddell Hart mosquitoes hammers military The military weapon is but one of the means that serve the purposes of war: one out of the assortment which grand strategy can employ. B. H. Liddell Hart military war mean The unexpected cannot guarantee success, but it guarantees the best chance of success. B. H. Liddell Hart chance military guarantees The higher level of grand strategy [is] that of conducting war with a far-sighted regard to the state of the peace that will follow. B. H. Liddell Hart levels military war Air forces offered the possibility of striking a the enemy's economic and moral centres without having first to achieve 'the destruction of the enemy's main forces on the battlefield'. Air-power might attain a direct end by indirect means - hopping over opposition instead of overthrowing it. B. H. Liddell Hart military air mean A commander should have a profound understanding of human nature, the knack of smoothing out troubles, the power of winning affection while communicating energy, and the capacity for ruthless determination where require by circumstances. He needs to generate an electrifying current, and to keep a cool head in applying it. B. H. Liddell Hart determination should-have winning The more closely [the German army] converged on [Stalingrad], the narrower became their scope for tactical manoeuvre as a lever in loosening resistance. By contrast, the narrowing of the frontage made it easier for the defender to switch his local reserves to any threatened point on the defensive arc. B. H. Liddell Hart levers army military Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding. B. H. Liddell Hart devil society self In should be the duty of every soldier to reflect on the experiences of the past, in the endeavor to discover improvements, in his particular sphere of action, which are practicable in the immediate future. B. H. Liddell Hart spheres soldier past For if we merely take what obviously appears the line of least resistance, its obviousness will appeal to the opponent also; and this line may no longer be that of least resistance. In studying the physical aspect, we must never lose sight of the psychological, and only when both are combined is the strategy truly an indirect approach, calculated to dislocate the opponent's balance. B. H. Liddell Hart balance military sight Natural hazards, however formidable, are inherently less dangerous and less uncertain than fighting hazards. All conditions are more calculable, all obstacles more surmountable than those of human resistance. B. H. Liddell Hart hazards fighting military To ensure attaining an objective, one should have alternate objectives. An attack that converges on one point should threaten, and be able to diverge against another. Only by this flexibility of aim can strategy be attuned to the uncertainty of war. B. H. Liddell Hart military should-have war The predominance of moral factors in all military decisions. On them constantly turns the issue of war and battle. In the history of war they form the more constant factors, changing only in degree, whereas the physical factors are different in almost every war and every military situation. B. H. Liddell Hart issues military war The more usual reason for adopting a strategy of limited aim is that of awaiting a change in the balance of force ... The essential condition of such a strategy is that the drain on him should be disproportionately greater than on oneself. B. H. Liddell Hart balance usual military The practical value of history is to throw the film of the past through the material projector of the present on to the screen of the future. B. H. Liddell Hart materials film past A modern state is such a complex and interdependent fabric that it offers a target highly sensitive to a sudden and overwhelming blow from the air. B. H. Liddell Hart target air blow
