Napoleon
Bonaparte
Freidrich
Ludwig –
Hohenloheingelfingen
Frederick the great
Miyamoto musashi
Horatio
Nelson
Joseph Stalin
Erwin Rommel
Hernan cortes
Fyodor
Dostoyevsky
Czar Nicolas
Genghis Khan
Vince Lombardi
Mussolini
Machiavelli
Klemens von
Metternich
Milton H. erickson
Louis XIV
 Strategy is more than a science: it is the application of knowledge to practical life, the development of though capable to modifying the original guiding idea in the light of ever changing situations; it is the art of acting under the pressure of the most difficult conditions – Helmuth Von Moltke
 “By playing on the psychological weakness of the opponent, by maneuvering him into precarious positions, by inducing feelings of frustration and confusion, a strategist can get the other side to break down mentally before surrendering physically”
 “The moment you aim for results, you are in the realm of strategy”
 “Judge people by their actions”
 “Your goal is to blend philosophy and war, wisdom and battle, into an unbeatable blend”
 “Strategy becomes a lifelong challenge and the source of constant pleasure in surmounting difficulties and solving problems”
 Life is one long battle; we have to fight at every step; and Voltaire very rightly says that if we succeed, it is at the point of the sword, and that we die with the weapon in our hand –
Arthur Schopenhauer
 “Before directing these arrows at your enemies, however, you must first direct them at yourself”
 Your obstacle is yourself – Xenophon
 “The more clearly you recognize who you do not want to be, then, the clearer your sense of identity and purpose will be”
 “The centre is the realm of compromise”
 “Say or do something that can be read in more than one way”
 “Instead of internalizing a bad situation, externalize it and face your enemy. It is the only way out”
 “War for them [Prussians] was a mathematical affair, the applications of timeless principles”
 “Unlike his [Hohenlohe’s] soldiers, they [the French soldiers] moved on their own, yet there was a method to their madness”
 “Repetition replaces creativity”
 “In each instance he adapted his strategy to his opponent and to the circumstances of the moment”
 “Ideas are merely nutrients for the soil; they lie in your brain as possibilities, so that in the heat of the moment they can inspire a direction, an appropriate and creative response”
 “The greatest generals, the most creative strategists, stand out not because they have more knowledge but because they are able, when necessary, to drop their preconceived notions and focus intensely on the present moment”
 “The guerrilla army never stops to defend s particular place or town, it wins by always moving, staying one step ahead. By following no set pattern, it gives the enemy no target.
The guerilla army never repeats the same tactic. It responds to the situation, the moment, the terrain where is happens to find itself. There is no front, no concrete line of communication or supply, no slow-moving wagon. The guerilla army is pure mobility”
 “You exploit the chaos of the world instead of succumbing to it”
 “Their self control often hides weakness; the reason they think things through so carefully is that they are terrified of making a mistake and of what that might mean for them…. suddenly they cannot make a decision [when they are tested] “
 “Your mind will never go blank when it is that well prepared”
Inculcated
Echelon
Corollary
Latent
Ephemeral
Polarize
Benign
Conciliator
Stagnant
Axiom
Pernicious
Perfunctorily
Temerity
Repertoire
Fingerspitzeng
- efuhl
Recalcitrance
Auftragstaktik
Amalgam
Harangue
Providence
Pyrrhic
Victory
Chagrin
Vehement
Perverse
Staunch
Pestiferous
Visceral
Hitherto
Clemency
Ardent
Assiduously

 “The less they understand you the better”
 “What makes your mind stronger, and more able to control your emotions, is internal discipline and toughness”
 “Dependency makes you vulnerable to all kinds of emotions…that play havoc with your mental balance”
 “Exhaustion and frustration can ruin your presence of mind”
 “When working alongside fools, do not fight them. Instead Think of them the way you think of children, or pets, not important enough to effect your mental balance. Detach yourself emotionally.”
 “When circumstances scare us, our imagination tends to take over, filling our minds with endless anxieties…. Being able to control your imagination at intense moments is a crucial skill”
 “Presence of mind depends not only on your minds ability to come to your aid in difficult situations but also on the speed with which this happens”
 “Devoured information about the enemy”
 “He didn’t just study his men, his tanks, the terrain and the enemy – he got inside their skin, understood the spirit that animated them, what made them tick”
 “Once a presence of mind becomes a habit, it will never abandon you”
 “Look for your own weakness, and think about how to compensate for them”
 “The more you have lost your balance, the more you will know about how to right yourself”
 “The more emotional you can make them, the farther you will push them off course”
 “You are your own worst enemy. You waste precious time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present. Since nothing seems urgent to you, you are only half involved in what you do…put yourself in situations where you have too much at stake to waste time or resources - if you cannot afford to lose, you wont…. place yourself on ‘death ground’, where your back is against the wall and you have to fight like hell to get out alive”
 “People change their behavior only if they have to. They will feel urgency only if their lives depend on it”
 “Failure – a form of psychic death - “
 Death is nothing, but to live defeated is to die everyday – Napoleon Bonaparte
 “Make risk a constant practice”
 “Soon living on death ground will become a kind of addiction – you wont be able to do without it”
 “Live has more meaning in the face of death”
 In war it is not men, but the man, that counts – Napoleon Bonaparte
 “Without saying a word, he had made it known that they had displeased him”
 “Not as a manipulator but as a delegator”
 “A beautifully worded order has extra power”
 “Control comes from almost letting go, holding the reins so lightly that the horse feels no tug but senses the slightest change in tension and respond as you desire”
 “The Austrian general [Karl Mack] now faced what he feared most – uncertainty – and it was clouding his ability to think straight”

 “It was like a pack of coyotes against a rabbit [Napoleon Trapping his enemies]”
 Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity – Carlo D’este
 “What matters is not following preordained steps but placing yourself in shih and giving yourself options”
 “His majesty made you a major because he believed you would know when not to obey his order”
 “Coddling your soldiers and acting as if everyone were equal will ruin discipline and promote the creation of factions” [Red Sox Verses Yankees 1940 – 1950]
 “Victory comes from discipline, training, and ruthlessly high standards”
 “Be careful in assembling this team that you are not seduced by expertise and intelligence”
 “He never asked his employees to do anything he wouldn’t do himself…How could you let such a man down by working less hard than he did?”
 Four brave men who do not know each other will not dare to attack a lion. Four less brave, but knowing each other well, sure of their reliability and consequently of mutual aid, will attack resolutely. There is the science of the organization of armies in a nutshell. – Colonel Charles Ardant Du Pico
 “You must aim indirectly at peoples emotions…emotions are contagious - they bring people together and make them bond. Then you can play them like a piano, moving them from one emotion to the other”
 “Losing hurts less when they embrace it”
 “Anybody can be efficient (It isn’t a question of talent), efficiency breeds success”
 “The way to manage people is to keep them in suspense. First create a bond between your soldiers and yourself. They respect you, admire you, even fear you a little. To make the bond stronger, old yourself back, create a little space around yourself; you are warm yet with a touch of distance. Once the bond is forged appear less often. Make both your punishments an your praises rare and unexpected…make them think of you constantly and want to please you but never know just how to do it”
 “The more you want the prize, the more you must compensate by examining what getting it will take”
 Abundance makes me poor – Ovid
 “In life you must be a warrior, and war requires realism”
 “There are things they [warriors] can never do, talents they will never have, lofty goals they will never reach; that hardly bothers them”
 “Relying on their [Armies with great masses of resources] equipment instead of on knowledge ad strategy they grow mentally lazy”
 “The best blows are the ones they never see coming”
 “Aggression is deceptive; it inherently hides weakness.”
 “Mirroring people- giving back to them just what they give you – is a powerful method of counterattack. In daily life, mirroring and passivity can charm people, flattering them into lowering their defenses and opening themselves to attack.”
 “Look for the emotion that your enemies are least able to manage, then bring it to the surface”
 Retreat is a sign of strength- The 1 Chine China
 Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have – Saul D. Alinsky

 “Crazy opponents are terrifying – no one likes fighting people who are unpredictable and have nothing to lose”
 “Establish a frightening reputation”
 Injuring all of a mans ten fingers is not as effective as chopping off one – Mao Tse-Tung
 “When someone attacks you or threatens you, you make it clear that he will suffer in return”
 “Generals liked to issue commands verbally rather than putting them off guard, the general would either have to drop the order or deny the request to put it in writing – which, if publicized, would make him look terrible. Either way he was trapped”
 It is more useful to be feared than to be loved – Machiavelli
 “If anything can go wrong, it will”
 “Beginning the minute you are born, time is all you have”
 “The greatest danger in war, and in life, come from the unexpected”
 “If anything can go wrong it will”
 “The unexpected is to be expected in war”
 “Every event has a reason, a casual chain of relationships that made it happen”
 Once you have learned everything, subtly gather in his power. Thus when the ultimate day arrives, it will seem as if Heaven itself destroyed him – Tai Kung
 What mind can penetrate his opponents mind? It is a mind that has been trained and cultivated to the point of detachment with perfect freedom. – Makoto Sugawara
 “Understand: Your real enemy Is your opponents mind…The most powerful army in the world can be beaten by unhinging the mind of its leader”
 “Let go of ones ego, to submerge oneself temporarily in the other persons mind”
 “A disturbed mind is one you can control and unbalance at will”
 “Everyone has a shadow, a secret self, a dark side. This shadow comprises everything people try to hide from the world – their weakness, secret desires, selfish intentions.
This shadows inverse from a distance; to see it you must get up close, physically and most of all psychologically”
 The punch that puts you to sleep is not so much the hard punch as the punch that you don’t see coming – Randolph Sugar
 “Getting your enemies to fight according to your tempo”
 “You do not wait for opportunities to open up; you make them yourself”
 “The ultimate form of domination is to make those on the other side think they are the ones in control”
 “Everything in this world conspires to put you on the defensive”
 “Before anything you must lose your fear- of death”
 “Find what the other side most cherishes and protects – that is where you must strike”
 “In political environments people depend on their connections even more than on their talents”
 “If you are to lead you must occupy the centre. Everything must flow through you. If information is to be withheld, you are the one to do it. That is divide and rule.”
 In strategy the longest way around is usually the shortest way home – B.H.Liddell Hart

 “Think of peoples ego and vanity as a kind of front. When they are attacking you and you don’t know why, it is often because you have inadvertently threatened their ego…whenever possible, you must work to make people feel secure about themselves.”
 “The key is to never strike too early. Give your opponents time to hang themselves” pg 244 The horns of the beast