Carl von Clausewitz Elements Quotations

We shall not enter into any of the abstruse definitions of war used by publicists. We shall keep to the element of the thing itself, to a duel. War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale.

Four elements make up the climate of war: danger, exertion, uncertainty and chance.

Only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.