Clausewitz: On War - General Carl von Clausewitz  ## Metadata - Author: **General Carl von Clausewitz** - Full Title: Clausewitz: On War - Category: #books ## Highlights - War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale. If we would conceive as a unit the countless number of duels which make up a War, we shall do so best by supposing to ourselves two wrestlers. Each strives by physical force to compel the other to submit to his will: each endeavors to throw his adversary, and thus render him incapable of further resistance. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hygvtwh6qf48rc63r6eehhqt)) - Tags: #war #game-theory - WAR THEREFORE IS AN ACT OF VIOLENCE INTENDED TO COMPEL OUR OPPONENT TO FULFIL OUR WILL. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hygvvahp264e06pfpthg8ph3)) - But there is still another cause which may stop action in War, viz., an incomplete view of the situation. Each Commander can only fully know his own position; that of his opponent can only be known to him by reports, which are uncertain; he may, therefore, form a wrong judgment with respect to it upon data of this description, and, in consequence of that error, he may suppose that the power of taking the initiative rests with his adversary when it lies really with himself. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hygwcvsvawegpx8fg7tgt26e)) - We see from the foregoing how much the objective nature of War makes it a calculation of probabilities; now there is only one single element still wanting to make it a game, and that element it certainly is not without: it is chance. There is no human affair which stands so constantly and so generally in close connection with chance as War. But together with chance, the accidental, and along with it good luck, occupy a great place in War. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hygwnc5cw7dnxrrrsrtkna1b)) - If we now take a look at the subjective nature of War, that is to say, at those conditions under which it is carried on, it will appear to us still more like a game. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hygyb6m2s6cmj22eb6mtwd4w)) - Strategy has been defined as "the employment of the battle as the means towards the attainment of the object of the War." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hygyevpcsntpp9bqdt7rn5p2))