Liddell Hart Quotes & Sayings

The destruction of the enemy's armed forces is but a means
and not necessarily an inevitable or infallible one
to the attainment of the real objective. The object of war is not to destroy the enemy's tanks but to destroy his will. — Liddell Hart

Throughout the ages, effective results in war have rarely been attained unless the
approach has had such indirectness as to ensure the opponent's unreadyness to meet it.
The indirectness has usually been physical, and always psychological. — Liddell Hart

Universal peace-time conscription was adopted by almost all countries as the basis of their military system. This ensured that wars would grow bigger in scale, longer in duration, and worse in effects. While conscription appeared democratic, it provided autocrats, hereditary or revolutionary, with more effective and comprehensive means of imposing their will, both in peace and war. Once the rule of compulsory service in arms was established for the young men of a nation, it was an obvious and easy transition to the servitude of the whole population. Totalitarian tyranny is the twin of total warfare - which might aptly be termed a reversion to tribal warfare on a larger scale. — Liddell Hart