No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Military Strategists
Carl von Clausewitz
The Prussian military theorist whose 'On War' became the most influential work of strategic theory in Western history (1780-1831). Clausewitz's insights — that war is politics by other means, that friction makes simple things difficult, and that the 'fog of war' ensures uncertainty — remain the foundation of modern strategic thinking across military and civilian domains.
View this figure's profile
Carl von Clausewitz's Other Quotes
Related Quotes
I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
-- Thomas Edison
Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest.
-- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Be water, my friend.
-- Bruce Lee
In war there is no constant posture, as water has no constant form. He who can win by adapting to the enemy's changes may be called divine.
-- Sun Tzu
Swift as the wind, silent as the forest, fierce as fire, immovable as the mountain.
-- Takeda Shingen
In this uncertain world, we cannot know what tomorrow brings.
-- Sanada Yukimura