Carl von Clausewitz
On June 1, 1780, Carl von Clausewitz was born a citizen of the Kingdom of Prussia, beginning a life that would take him through military service and into serious work as a writer and thinker.
He built his career across several overlapping roles. As an army officer and military officer in Prussian service, he worked in the field while also engaging with history, philosophy, and military theory. He wrote in German, and his output placed him among those who practiced military writing, history, and philosophy as disciplines alongside their soldiering. His notable work is On War, a text that stands as the concrete product of his years as a military theorist and writer.
The decorations he received over the course of his career span several different awarding bodies. From his service he earned the Iron Cross 1st Class and the Gold Sword for Bravery. He was also awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, the Order of Saint Anna, and the Commander Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa. These five honors, drawn from more than one state and military tradition, mark the range of his service as a military officer and army officer during his lifetime.
Clausewitz died on November 16, 1831, leaving behind On War as his most substantial contribution in the role of military writer and theorist. That work remains the clearest anchor to his identity as both a practitioner and a thinker — a Prussian army officer who also worked as a philosopher, historian, and writer. The Commander Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, among the awards he received, stands as one concrete marker of how his contemporaries formally recognized his service during his lifetime.
Quotes by Carl von Clausewitz
Carl von Clausewitz's insights on:
The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.
Just as some plants bear fruit only if they don’t shoot up too high, so in practical arts the leaves and flowers of theory must be pruned and the plant kept close to its proper soil- experience.
Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them.
As each man’s strength gives out, as it no longer responds to his will, the inertia of the whole gradually comes to rest on the commander’s will alone. The ardor of his spirit must rekindle the flame of purpose in all others; his inward fire must revive their hope.
Men are always more inclined to pitch their estimate of the enemy’s strength too high than too low, such is human nature.
All thinking is indeed Art. Where the logician draws the line, where the premises stop which are the result of cognition – where judgment begins, there Art begins. But more than this even the perception of the mind is judgment again, and consequently Art; and at last, even the perception by the senses as well.
To be practical, any plan must take account of the enemy’s power to frustrate it.
Von der Goltz in excuse for the action of the late President Kruger in 1899: “The Statesman who, knowing his instrument to be ready, and seeing War inevitable, hesitates to strike first is guilty of a crime against his country.
Theory must also take into account the human element; it must accord a place to courage, to boldness, even to rashness.
The majority of people are timid by nature, and that is why they constantly exaggerate danger. all influences on the military leader, therefore, combine to give him a false impression of his opponent’s strength, and from this arises a new source of indecision.